Bearhugs Blog

Well I didn’t manage to post yesterday. Claire told Maria that the BBC were streaming the Red Nose Day programme over the internet and that was it. There was no chance of me getting anywhere near the computer. Mind you it does make you appreciate how good British TV is, we have hundreds of channels here, but apart from the films very little we want to watch. Mind you we do love the adverts, particularly the one about the slimming program which goes on about what a lot of weight all these people have lost and then in small print in the corner of the screen it says ‘these are not typical results’!!? And of course the ones about medication for bladder urgency which you shouldn’t take if you have various urinary conditions!!?
Anyway, we had a quiet day yesterday, Maria did some work on her bears but she was hampered by her lack of long needles, and then we went for a walk along the Hudson and picked up a few bits of shopping then went back to the apartment to watch RND. When John came home he was rather wound up so he took a while to relax and then neither he nor Maria fancied cooking (I offered) so we sent out for some Chinese/Thai/Japanese fusion food. It was very nice but I suppose we all like the food we’re used to.
This morning John had some work he needed to do so we listened to a few CDs and got on with some bits and pieces until after lunch. By then we were all feeling rather ‘stir crazy’ so we decided to go out, Maria had expressed a wish to go to Barnes and Noble so we took the subway to Union Square.
When we got there we discovered they had a farmers market going on so we had a lovely time looking at all the stalls. We got some unusual salad bits we’re looking forward to, some very nice cheese (Maria and John keep going on about how you can’t get any decent cheese or bacon here) and some bison meat(?), I kept trying to nudge them towards the stalls selling honey but they kept going on about the carbs.
We then had a really good wander around Barnes and Noble, we spent a fair amount of time in front of the shelf with the beading books, talking in loud voices about how good the Beaders Bible looked. Perhaps we were a bit obvious?

John was amazed how long Maria can spend in a bookshop. She seems to have a real talent for it. Maria was amazed how many books they had on cooking in a city where so few people cook. I was amazed how many differnt magazines they had and how few of them were about bears.

Great day today. Maria is without a long needle so she couldn’t work on her bears, so we thought we’d have a day out. We’ve got so used to getting up early that we tend to get all the chores done by 9am. It was a lovely sunny (but cold) day so we set off uptown. On past visits Maria and John have got beads for Claire from the Garment District (6th Ave, 34 -40th Street) and so Maria thought she might get some nice beads for her NY bears to wear.
We had a great time, there are some fantastic shops (I think we might be coming back) and Maria got more than she ‘needed’, doesn’t she always?
Then we thought since we were around the area, and it was a lovely clear day, we’d go up the Empire State Building. Neither Maria nor I had ever done this essential bit of sight seeing. We seemed to walk miles in order to get the tickets, but then we decided to go for the full package. So we bought tickets for the Skyride ( a virtual reality ride through the skies and on the ground round NYC), the observation platform and the audio tour by an ex cabby.
IT WAS BRILL!!!

The views from the top were fantastic, I particularly liked the view of 5th Ave.

By the time we’d made our way back to the apartment (via the Amish Market) we were both pretty shattered. I don’t think Maria is going to want to cook tonight. She’s been going on about something called jalapeno poppers.

Cold morning today,we woke up to 16deg F plus windchill but nice sunshine.
John was up and awake early (6.20am) and happened to look out the window, and there was the Queen Mary II coming up the Hudson. He got his camera out quick.

Maria’s just grateful he didn’t wake her up to have a look.
After doing the washing, Maria and I decided to brave the cold and stroll to the World Financial Center. We had a look around the shops, Maria found another branch of Godivas, I think the next step is for her to get a loyalty card with them. Apparently their extra dark chocolate truffle is to die for. Personally I prefer honey.
While we were there we also had a look at the exhibition about the World Trade Site. The plans look fantastic, the footprints of the two towers will be left as a memorial but a new building, the tallest in the world is to be built next to them. Maria says she remembers going up to the top of the two towers and looks forward to going up to the top of the new building. Strange for a woman who gets vertigo on stairs.
If you want to find out about the plans there is a good web site www.september11news.com.
Maria has had a panic today,she broke her long needle,so she can’t needlesculpt or set eyes on her bears. She’s managed to find a supplier who’ll ship to her in the next couple of days, but in the meantime she’s unable to finish any more bears. I think it’s just as well, it’s getting pretty crowded around here.

After yesterdays warm weather we thought perhaps spring had arrived. We woke to temperatures in the high 40s and rain. John went to work and Maria and I tidied up and thought we’d then go to the World Financial Center to see the plans for the World Trade Center site.
We were just ready to go out when the rain stopped. Instead it started snowing!! heavily!!. The temperature dropped dramatically and the wind picked up. For the next 6 hours there was no let up.

It really didn’t look inviting so we decided not to go out. I found a nice film to watch (Driving Miss Daisy) and Maria made another bear. It’s getting positively crowded around here. She ordered an easily portable airbrush system a few days ago and it arrived today, so she was happy playing. I must say it seemed easy to work and she got good results.
The snow didn’t let up until John came home.But then we had a glorious sunset.

We’re promised lovely weather for tomorrow, cold but sunny, so perhaps we’ll have our trip out then.

Well, it being Monday it was Maria’s day for tidying and sorting out the apartment. The weather has gone warm with a high of about 48deg F, positively tropical compared to what we’ve had recently. Mind you it’s due to go cold again around midweek.
So we had the door to the balcony open most of the day and even sat outside for a while.
The internet is a wonderful thing and Maria tends to listen again to Terry Wogan and some of the comedy programmes on radio 7. She tried listening live, but kept getting thrown by hearing Drive Time at mid-day.
Maria has managed to finish another bear, this one stands on all fours and has a longer snout like a real bear. Rather nice I think.

Today is Sunday so it’s Johns day off (sort of), so we decided to go to the South Street Seaport, that way we could come back at a reasonable time and John could get some work done in the evening.
I had a great time, I loved the juxtaposition (Maria’s word, I think it means the right thing) of the old fashioned rigging on the ships with the sky scrapers.

We wandered around the shops and went out on the observation decks.

There was a supperb view of Brooklyn Bridge and the seagulls were very friendly.

We did a bit of shopping and Maria said she would need a new pair of trainers soon because she was wearing out her current pair with all this walking. So John offered to take her to Foot Locker but she said, no way, not until she saw what Macys had to offer. So off we went to Macys (I sometimes think John is too good to her). It’s an amazing store, we came away with not only a pair of trainers but a handbag (Fossil no less) and a silly shocking pink Macys shopping bag. We also tried to buy John a container to take salads to work for his lunch. Guess what, Macys will sell you a fantastic range of things to prepare food with, superb things to serve the food in, indoors, outdoors or on a picnic but nothing to store or carry food in. We had to go to K-Mart for that.
So Maria shops at Macys and John shops at K-Mart.
Then we walked down to Pennsylvania station ‘cos Maria has been talking longingly about Krispy Kreme donuts for days and John said we could get some there. So tonight it’s gloating over our shopping and eating donuts.
Perhaps we’ll also rent a DVD.

A bit warmer today, still lovely sunshine but snow still around. John decided we should try a different supermarket for our grocery shopping, so we decided to go to midtown around 83rd street and Lexington. We thought it would be easy, we could catch a no. 4 or 5 on the subway up to 86th and stroll back.
To start with the Battery Park shuttle bus we took to Bowling Green has had the stop outside the Amish Market suspended for a while because of roadworks. Then we found the subway station was closed, so we headed uptown to the next one, to find that one also closed. In the end we had to walk up to City Hall/Brooklyn Bridge before we found an open subway, apparently part of the track is closed for the next three weekends for essential maintenance.
Personally I enjoyed the walk, but John and Maria say that might be something to do with riding in a bag instead of walking.
It was interesting to do the shopping at a different supermarket and Maria is rather proud of the fact that she now has a loyalty card for a New York supermarket. However she say she does miss shopping at Sainsburys, you know pushing the trolley right up to the boot of her car and then driving the car right up to her front door.
Anyway, I said I’d try to put up photos of Marias new bears, so here they are.

Another lovely day with the sun shining, the snow is now starting to look a bit tired. Maria and I decided to walk down to the Amish market along the Hudson. The walk along the Hudson was lovely, crisp and very cold, but I managed to persuade Maria to stop for a while so that I could build a snowbear.

She kept complaining about the cold, it’s not as if it’s her hands that were getting frozen, and I didn’t complain about the fact that she kept stopping to take photos, she kept going on about the quality of the light or something.
When we got down to Battery Park we thought it was such a lovely day we would carry on and take a ride on the Staten Island Ferry, the best free ride in New York. You get some fantastic views of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty from the ferry, we were very brave and stayed outside so that we could see really well and Maria could take some photos.

John has marked our apartment on this photo.

Of course when we got to Staten Island we just got off the ferry and straight back on again together with a lot of people. Maria says in the summer we might stay on the island and go to the beach but at the moment it’s far too cold.
We then went to the Amish Market to buy some salad to go with the burgers Maria’s making for tea and then walked back to the apartment.
Maria has now made 4 new bears (John is hoping to take some good photos in daylight tomorrow) and she wanted to make some notes on what she’d done so she worked on that while I had a snooze, all this fresh air tires me out.

Today has felt like the coldest day since we arrived, probably because of the wind. Maria and I went for a brief walk around Battery Park area and the wind was really cutting so we took refuge in Borders, Maria bought a Teddy Bear and Friends magazine, she thought she might send them a brief contribution. We then went to their CD section and listened to a whole lot of samples of various CD and of course bought some, I particularly enjoyed Hayseed Dixie and several of the Gospel music CDs.
We then braved the wind again and made our way back, Maria wanted to work on a bear and start the cooking for tonight. We are going to have to buy a new tin opener the current one just doesn’t work, I learned some new words today when Maria tried to use it.
The weather certainly looks better from the inside. It’s been nice for me to laze around for the day, and I think we’ll have a couple of new bears to show tomorrow.

Maria felt she needed a break from bears (!!??) so we decided to go out for the day. We thought we’d go midtown and visit St Patricks Cathedral and see what else we would come accross.
It was a lovely day, cold but bright so we strolled over to Rector Street and took the subway up to 50th Street, this numbering system makes getting around very easy. We then walked cross town, Maria claims all this walking must be making her fitter. We passed Radio City and then came accross an enourmous Build a Bear shop, Maria said she’d had enough of bears but I managed to persuade her to go in so I could pick up some prezzies for my friends back at Patchings.
Of course while I picked out some I Love New York T-shirts and Yankees baseball caps, Maria had to look at the bears. Fatal. We now have an extra bear to take home. Still I always say you can never have too many bears.
We then carried on to St Patricks and spent a quiet 1/2 hour. Saks is just opposite, so we had a brief forray in there, but we had to leave ‘cos Maria was getting depressed about all the lovely bags she couldn’t afford, so I had to get her out before she moved onto shoes. What is it about people and shoes? Or is it just women and shoes? Luckily I managed to distract her with a Godiva chocolate shop nearby, They’d just dipped some fresh strawberries in dark chocolate, so guess what we’re having for dessert tonight.
By this time we’d arrived at Lexington Ave., so we took the subway back to Bowling Green and after a brief forray into the Amish Market we made our way back home. A nice day all around.