Bye Cats, Hello West Side

It's time again. Three weeks have gone by so quickly, and I am moving out of the Cat Place tomorrow. Lets say we never exactly became friends, those kitties and I. They tolerated me (mostly), and I tolerated them (mostly). Diplomatic relations deteriorated when they tried to nibble on Amy and started ignoring the fact that they had a litter box, leaving me little fecal tokens of "appreciation" all over the apartment at regular intervals. In total, however, I think the operation was a success, given that they are alive and healthy and I had a wonderful place to stay for three weeks. I will miss breakfast treats from Tazza, baba ganoush from Sahadi's and the skyline, but I'm ready to explore the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

By the way, I have finally uploaded photos from the past weeks.
Last days in Boston and first days in NYC
More Christmas with the Morans
A tour of Brooklyn Heights
The week with Amy
I've been lazy with the camera, so many things have not been documented. Nevertheless, it's a nice little overview of what we've been up to lately.

Pia arrives tomorrow night, so the fun goes on. It will be great to have her around - many a fun plan is in the making, some of which involve Woody Allen, music, history, and - of course - food.

Mornings in the City

Few things are as satisfying as managing to roll your tired body out of bed early in the morning to watch the city wake up. Amy is visiting this week, and among many other amusements, we got up at 6am today to have breakfast at Balthazar with Colin before heading off to work (or sightseeing, respectively). Giant bowls of latte, French toast with bacon, eggs Florentine and the world's best waffles with berry sauce surely put a spring in your step - especially if it is topped off with laughter and a sunny day in the Village.

Other activities of the week included

• brunch at Robin des Bois, a funky little antique-store-gone-breakfast-joint in Brooklyn, followed by a walk through the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and a quick stopover at the B'klyn Museum
• long, cozy hours in front of the fireplace at the Skypad (Colin and Bill's apartment), drinking tea and wine, snacking away on crackers, watching movies and listing to arias on top volume with the lights turned down
• a high-quality conversation with dad during a quick lunch break over an Amish Market sandwich. There's nothing like a reality check with your parents to help get your thoughts organized.
• a spectacular three-course home-cooked dinner with the world's best babaganough from Sahadi's and some tasty wines
• massive amounts of dark and light ale at McSorley's Old Ale House, New York City's oldest bar with the boys, Amy and Papi and watching the State of the Union address in the company of Lower-Manhattan Bush haters
• a tour of Cooper Union by Sascha
• a Brussels reunion with Phil and Jeff tonight - of course, we will go play pool, ghetto-style. Just like old times at our Chaussee de Wavre intern flat.

Amy and Papi take off tomorrow - it's been great to have them around! One thing I've realized, though, amongst all the fun of having visitors: I am blessed with a group of great friends right here in New York, and they are really making every minute of my stay worth while.

[For those who are impatiently awaiting photos: I hope to finally upload them on the weekend!]

Quiet times

Not much news to report ... I had a quiet long weekend filled with brunches, lunches and dinners, plays, movies and house cleaning.
For a summary of current events, see the new sidebar on the right: Current Obsessions.

Off to another meeting with the billionaire. Maybe I can score an invite to the Virgin Islands? I could use some sun.

This and that

• The night after I bragged about having had a quality cat moment with Biggins, I forgot him outside. Thank God the patio is closed off and he couldn't run away, and the temperatures were cold, but bearable - so he survived, and seems happy as ever. Phew.
• My sister has arrived in India. She talks about wild monkeys, cows and elephants on the street, and curry for every meal, but she seems to like it. The hospital she is working at is not quite up to the Western standards of hygiene she is used to - but I know her, she'll find her place in a matter of days.
• On Thursday night I met up with Stephanie, a grade school buddy of mine from DC whom I haven't seen in 16 years!! She lives in a funky little place on Avenue C in the Lower East Side, and we had a read Bavarian beer at Zum Schneider and talked like we'd known each other for years. Which, technically isn't true... it's funny when the last memory you have of someone is a little blond seven-year-old with pigtails, and suddely you're faced with a grown woman - and I mean grown, she is about 6ft tall!
• Less than a week until Amy arrives! We met up in Paris last time, and New York it is this time! Any suggestions where to go next? (Preferably including cheap flights and free accomodation.)
• PIA IS COMING TO NEW YORK! She will be here for the entire month of February. We have seen each other three times in the past two years, so this will be great. And, to make things more extraordinary (only few of you will appreciate this): She will be working for my friend Bill Grace and living in the WYA house. Full circle.
• Did I mention I love New York? Here's another reason why: This city makes you fall in love with it over and over again. Once you think you've found out about the best spots, you come across more, and they are completely different, but equally fantastic.

Off I go. Time to deliver on my promise to get fit and go for a run. And after that, I think some book browsing and shop exploring in SoHo might be in order. This weekend will be a good one. Especially because, thanks to Martin Luther King, Monday is off.

Pet problems

We've had a number of pets in the course of my life:

1) Goldfish that my sister and I won at a birthday party in Washington. We brought them home in a plastic bag, and for lack of a fish tank we put them in a metal bowl. It must have had a negative effect on their sanity, because soon after my mother had bought an incredibly fancy aquarium, Jacob, the largest of the fish (and mine) bit the tail fins off all the other ones, and they died. I wanted to flush him down the toilet, but we released him into the Potomac River instead. I secretly hoped he would be eaten by a large mean predator.

2) A turtle "shell" that we found on a tennis court, and which suddenly came to life on the ride home. We kept "Snappy" until she started eating my mom's flowers, and then returned her to where we had found her. I had secretly hoped to be able to keep her over winter, because you have to put those animals into the fridge so that they can hibernate. Who would want to miss that??

3) Several rabbits that my parents bought for us at the Budapest market. They came with a bag of food and were meant to be slaughtered for Easter. We gave the bunnies away to a farmer each winter and got one of their children the next spring. Years went by before our parents told us that they actually were slaughtered by those farmers and they just bought new ones for us each year. That was a worse trauma than finding out about the Easter Bunny.

4) Parakeets. We got two and called them Max and Moritz. Moritz didn't make it past the winter, so we got Max a beautiful yellow lady called Citronella for company. We had to leave them in Hungary for quarantine reasons, and I believe they lived happily ever after and hatched many eggs.

Anyway. Today I had to face the facts: I am not a cat person. I mean, Biggins and I did have a short bonding moment during Seinfeld tonight when he climbed onto my lap and started purring. But stepping on their squeaky toy mice scares the living hell out of me, and I am already royally sick of cleaning litter boxes and removing cat hair from the bathtub, keyboard, my clothes, my bed... everywhere.
Feline fans, I am sorry - but this is not for me.

25 and famous

So, I am officially on the wrong side of 25 now. The B-day was kicked off last night with linguine ai frutti di mare, STOMP at the Orpheum and dessert and Marsala wine at Perbacco.
This morning, I found out that it didn't even take me a week to make it into the New York Times.

Also, my sister got on a plane to India today. She is a nurse and will be working at a hospital there until May - it's a big adventure! Now my parents officially have children in three continents. I guess it must be genetic.

Life in the Apple

It seems the New York lifestyle has swallowed me whole, because even though I have technically been here for more than two weeks, I haven't yet had the chance to properly report on my goings-on.

Upper East. For the past 10 days I've been a real uptown girl, mingling with the rich and the beautiful in Manhattan's Upper East Side while staying with my aunt in an 87th street apartment. I've found the not-so-rich and the reasonably pretty more appealing, though, and preferred the beaming smile doorman Jose greeted me with every night to the snobbish sneer of the locals, who seem to be daily customers of the countless nail and hair studios on 1st avenue.

On the other hand, the proximity of the Park, good friends, evening walks along festively lit Fifth and Park Avenues and great restaurants made it worth every minute.

High Society. New Years Eve was spent sipping champaign and nibbling on caviar at the University Club's black tie New Year's party ... it was a first for me, but luckily the people I was with didn't take themselves half as seriously as the platinum-blonde face-lifted crowd. We had fun and enjoyed pretending to be real big spenders for a night.

Interesting encounters. I started work on January 2nd, and so far it has been rather uneventful. However, I did get to accompany the director to a meeting with a New York billionaire who owns several buildings in Gramercy Park and among other things has a giant pillar-shaped crystal chandelier hanging in the staircase of his five-story townhouse. During the meeting he had a quick chat on the phone with Senator Leahy whom he asked a quick fundraising question... His story is American Dream de luxe: He came to the States as the son of poor German immigrants after WWII and, after working as a psychiatrist for a decade, made a fortune in the metal trading business. Today, he owns an island in the Virgin Islands. Charmed life?

The Cat Place. Yesterday I left Manhattan to start my catsitting stint in Brooklyn Heights. My feline room mates are rather quiet and a bit odd (Biggins will only let you pat his head, and Mistopheles drinks from the tap in the bathtub), and I have to get used to the smell of cat food, but so far they are still alive and well. Lets hope it goes on that way, because I am really not the world's best pet sitter!
The place is great, a quiet duplex in a great area with a cute kitchen, room for visitors, a computer, TV and a nice DVD collection. The neighborhood reminds me of London - quiet streets, beautiful brick townhouses, fun little bars and cafes, and a breathtaking view of the skyline from the Esplanade. I can't find my data cable, so here are some photos I nicked from the internet that look a lot like what I saw today.

Manhattan skyline from the Esplanade

Quiet streets

Breathtaking views on to the water

This is getting way too long, so just a few past and future highlights to top it off:

• Catholic Underground: Ever seen monks in grey skateboarding, rapping, playing the saxophone and sending 500+ people into fits of roaring laughter? They are real, and they run a really fun youth event every first Saturday of the month. You won't believe it unless you've seen it. Yesterday, they also screened an amazing movie called Bella. A must-see that won the people's choice award at the Toronto Film Festival 2006!
• Pre-birthday brunch at Cafe Sabarsky with real Viennes hot chocolate this morning with my few NY friends, followed by a stroll through the Gallery to take in some Klimt and Schiele.
• Visits from three of my VIPs: Both Amy and dad are coming for a week at the end of January, and it looks like Pia will be spending an entire month here in February!! Can't wait.
• A surprise tonight ... have no idea what it is, but I have to be at Union Square at 6.15.
  

Happy New Year!