We’re back home! It’s weird and wonderful at the same time. But let’s see, what happened these last days..

On Monday I had coffee with Gwynn Mac Donald who I met at the Fringe Festival. She has her own theater company and she had hooked me up with some interesting people in the theater business. I don’t know of I wrote this but it’s so easy to have ‘coffee’ with (business) people in NY. Maybe it’s the same here but I was surprised by their enthusiasm to have me over and talk about their work. It’s something I’d like to continue (back) home since I always felt so motivated after these ‘coffee’ talks. Anyway, I had a nice chat with Gwynn and she is very interested to work with Dutch (female) theater writers in NY so who knows we might be able to do something together in the future. Later in the day I met Paul for the last time. He is working on a big play for NY and Amsterdam in the summer of 2009 and he might need some marketing assistance in the spring. No idea how to do this with my job but these are interesting prospects.

Tuesday Jacco and I had to work for the last time. It felt weird, saying good bye, especially for Jacco who worked there full time for 6 months.  Last week I had already said good bye to the Arabic women at the language center. Aisda, one older very motivated lady gave me a big hug and couldn’t stop kissing me on the cheek…phoeh. That night, we had a good bye dinner with Jacco’s colleagues at Mole, the Mexican restaurant we have grown very fond of. It was a fun evening but we missed Angela who had to work during the evening. That night we walked back home thinking we both have met really nice people. Hopefully we’ll see some of them again.

The following day we pretended it was weekend, slept in, had breakfast at Orchard, walked through the city, did some packing and had dinner at Centro Vinoteca in the West Village. We had been there before with Wayne, Dana and his brother and wife. The food was again wonderful. The next morning we did some last minute (gift) shopping and in the afternoon we started packing. We soon discovered we needed to buy an extra suitcase which would set the total on 6 suitcases, one already taken to Amsterdam by Mark and Chiara, and we came with 4…oh well. We would buy the suitcase the next day since we had to hurry to meet Janneke and Matthias for dinner. We met at 5 points, a nice restaurant with really good food. Janneke & Matthias gave us a fare well card with a fridge magnet of NY, so we couldn’t forget. After dinner we wanted to show them the cocktail bar ‘Little Branch’ but they had a private party so we ended up at Cowgirl where we ordered a pitcher of Frozen Strawberry Margarita’s and hours later got kicked out of the bar. All in all a very fun last New York night!

The next day we went to say good bye to our second breakfast place, the diner run by the Greek family. A filled stomach and a big hug later we went home to finish packing our bags. At 4pm we looked around our  New York home for the last time and closed the door. Jacco had ordered a taxi at the hotel next door so that was very easy. When we rode across the Williamsburg Bridge we felt sad, also excited to go home but sad to leave another home.

We arrived at JFK on time to have a small dinner and to unwind a bit. We were supposed to leave at 8.30pm but during the security check (we already left the gate)  all power in the airplane went down. It got pitch dark and then the pilot told us that there was a problem with one of the generators so we had to go back to the gate to fix this. I’m always very grateful when they discover errors like this on the ground instead of in the air but Jacco and I got a little worried about our transfer time at Heathrow. After a delay of about 1,5 hours we actually left JFK. The flight was ok, we didn’t get any sleep at all but the time past rather quickly. When we got close to Heathrow the pilot told us that we had to circle in the air for a few minutes due to heavy traffic. Our hope of catching that transfer got very small and when we finally landed we knew we couldn’t make it.  So we went to the transfer desk at terminal 5 (the spotless new terminal!) expecting a flight one or two hours later. It turned out that all these flights were booked and that the first two seats were on the 14:30 flight,…5 hours later! We quickly informed Jacco’s parents and my mother that they shouldn’t come to Schiphol yet.  I don’t even know how we passed the time but we must have looked like zombies. At last we could board the plane and I fell asleep immediately. Turns out you can sleep uncomfortably in a chair, as long as you’re dead tired. Jacco wasn’t so lucky but this time it was a short flight. We arrived 20 minutes early and were happy to see all of our suitcases traveled with us. We even got happier to see our welcome party in the arrival hall, my mother, Jacco’s parents, Wendy, Roland & Timo, Isabella, Wilmar, Rosa & Ewout, Ap, Yvonne and Shirley.  And a big banner of ‘Welcome Home’. The other surprise was to see Timo walk and even run. Six  months is a long time! This welcome woke us up instantly and we tried to catch up a little bit with coffee at the Delifrance cafe. And then finally home, (my mother bought us a taxi ride) we were greeted with flowers,  cards, groceries and a big pile of empty Starbucks cups in all sizes. And all that space…it did feel immediately as home again which we thought was weird after 6 months…but good, very good.

So, after 6 months back in Amsterdam. I guess this will be (on of) the last blog from this address. Thanks to everyone who welcomed us back and we can’t wait to see you all again and catch up!

Almost everything we’re doing in these last weekes & days are last things. The last time we eat at this restaurant, the last time we get a coffee here, the last time we cycle by this corner, etc. etc. It feels strange.

Last weekend we had our last guests. Mark & Chiara arrived on Thursday for a long weekend. We started off by walking around our neighborhood and having dinner at Mole, our favorite Mexican restaurant. We’ve been here often enough to be recognized and welcomed by the owner and some of the waiters (Saskia has a secret crush on one of them).

By the end of dinner, both our guests were almost falling asleep, so we took them to their apartment. The next day, I had to work and so did Saskia, but we met up with them after work. Actually, I met up with Dawn, another ex-colleague from Amsterdam at the end of the day, who also happened to be in New York. Then Mark and Chiara joined us, after which I went back to the office with Mark to introduce him to Angela. Who knows, User Intelligence might be able to help her in the future. We went out for dinner (pizza!) and called it a day!

On Saturday, we slept quite long, and then went to get some breakfast and run some errands. We found a new, large bag, and Mark & Chiara had offered to bring some of our stuff back! That will save us at least one excess bag on our trip back…

For dinner, we decided to check out the meatpacking district. Strolling around was not an option, as it was pouring with rain. So we just ran out of the taxi and into Spice Market. A big restaurant with an Asian theme. It looked very nice, but we might have to wait for an hour. We found a place at the bar to drink cocktails, order starters and wait for our table. After about 45 minutes a table was available, and we had a wonderful dinner. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the food!

After that, it was dry outside, and Mark & Chiara were up for some drinks, so we took a taxi to the East Village. We first tried Angel Share, another speakeasy. No mention is made of the bar outside, but instead you need to go into a japanese restaurant. There is an inconspicuous door within th erestaurant that leads to the bar. However, the bar turned out quite full, and not lively enough for our guests, so we decided to find another place. The next choice was a lively bar, where we had some drinks. I think we could have been parents to most of the other people there, but the music was definitely more from our time than from theirs! After another bar it was time to go home.

On Sunday I sold my bike! Nicole, a colleague, decided to buy it and came to the city to pick it up. After that, we rolled our extra suitcase to Mark & Chiara’s apartment, and then had a last drink with them at the German beergarden. After we said our goodbyes, we had to run to be in time for “Arias with a twist”, a show at the HERE theatre, that Saskia wanted to see. It really was an amazing show, I’m sure Saskia will write about it at some point…

After that show, we had a quick dinner at a Cuban place in SoHo, after which we walked to Bleecker Street. Just off of Bleecker, in MacDougal Street, we found “The Rabbit Club”. This is where Julia Haltigan would be playing an acoustic set. The place did not look like a live music venue, and it wasn’t. According to the owner/barman, this would be the first live music in his bar. Julia arrived with her Dad, sat at the bar and started playing.

Her voice is amazing, and with dad playing mandoline and blues harp, the performance was quite an experience. There were about 10 people at the bar, watching the show. After the show, we bought her CD and went home.

That was our last weekend! This Friday, we’ll be leaving New York. <sigh>

Saturday morning (6am) we, or I must say Jacco, I slept through it) woke up with the familiar sound of hissing and the smell of heated dust… The central heating is on which means it’s really fall! Fortunately this time we can turn the heater off which means a cool bedroom. This means a cool everything since our apartment is so small but nothing a extra sweater won’t fix.

What the weekend is concerned, we took it really slow and relaxed. Had breakfast at the diner with our Greek friends (we promised them to come and say goodbye before we leave) and then we took a stroll through Central Park which is changing colours now as well. Not as bright as upstate New York or what we’ve seen in Anneke en Wil’s photo’s of Boston, but still, pretty. The weather was beautiful, cold and crisp, like it is today. At one point we walked towards a  musician who was setting up his gear for an outdoor gig. Just as we walked past him to have a seat on the other side we saw he was filming his crowd that gathered on a little hill. If you want to see what that looks like:

In the evening we met Fanneke (who had a 2 day stop over in NY) for a drink in Oliva, a Spanish place where they have live salsa music after midnight. Sunday we slept in, had breakfast at our other place (Orchard) and visited the ‘apple festival’. Again,…it’s really fall! Then we went to Starbucks for coffee and internet. Jacco designed a Crumpler bag for me which is being made this week, very happy with that! In the evening we got take out from the dumpling house and watched an episode of Doctor Who. I think it was the most quiet and relaxed weekend so far.

It’s amazing how quickly time seems to be passing by these days. It’s probably because we’re cramming in more activities than ever before.

Somehow, a couple of weeks ago, we started learning about a couple of special cocktail bars that are hard to find, and even harder to get in to. I don’t really know why it has taken us this long to learn about them, and I am more than a little sorry that we only have two more weeks to try them out. But we’re trying!

One of those bars we heard about is called Little Branch (place holder website, here’s a review). It turned out this one was not that hard to find, and not that hard to get in to. We found it around 10pm, after a very nice sushi dinner at a tiny place where we also occasionally order lunch from. The place doesn’t look like much. A completely non-descript door in a non-descript building, with a very small name plate on it. And a doorman outside.

There were a few people ahead of us and the doorman told us that there wasn’t much room in the bar, so they would only let people in as soon as there was enough space. Some suit-wearing people that arrived after us tried to get in quicker by trying to bribe the doorman, but he wouldn’t have anything of that. So they left. Probably better for the atmosphere in the bar.

After about 15 or 20 minutes, we could go in. It still didn’t look like much. A narrow staircase leads down to the cellar, where a little curtain hides what’s inside. Once through the curtain, it feels like you’re stepping back in time about 40 or 50 years. The sound of live jazz music hits you first. Then you take in the whole place, whihc isn’t big. Actually, it is pretty small. There is a bar, with two bartenders, both dressed in 40’s or 50’s gear, both sporting beards, and somehow looking like they belong there, in place & time. 

The area around the bar is full, but not too crowded. Again, there isn’t much space here. And behind the bar is a sort of corridor where the booths are. They are two- and four-person booths, and everybody there is drinking cocktails. Or wine. It’s very nice and mellow, you don’t have to shout over the live music. Which, you then realize, has to be coming from somewhere. They have managed to fit three musicians in a space under the stairs. Piano, upright bass and a drumkit. It looks lilke they need someone to get them out of that space, in exactly the right order, because otherwise they would get stuck there forever.

We order our first  cocktail at the bar. They have a cocktail menu, but it doesn’t hold many items. The idea is that you just tell the barman (’mixologist’) what you like. So I tell him I like whiskies and bourbons, and I don’t like my cocktails too sweet. And off he goes. Saskia tells them she would like a fresh, slightly sweet cocktail, and they oblige. Something cool about the cocktails: they have ice ‘cubes’ fit for each specific glass. This means your drink doesn’t dilute too quickly! Never knew you could take cocktails to this level. 

Both of our cocktails are amazing. Really nice, unlike any cocktail I’ve had before. They’re not cheap (15 bucks, including tip), but they’re worth it! After our first cocktail, we get one of the booths, and order another cocktail, this time from one of the waitresses. They are also very nice and helpful, and Saskia got one of them to write a list of other, similar cocktail places.

After three cocktails each, we called it a night. Slightly intoxicated we walked home.

On Friday, Saskia really wanted to go out and have a drink on the roof terrace of the Metropolitan Musem. It was probably one of the last Fridays that their roof terrace was open to the public, as it is now quickly getting too cold to go there. We met up in the museum, and quickly passed the ancient Greek sculptures to find our way to the roof. We were just in time for an amzing show: the sun setting over Central Park. 

The Jeff Koons exhibit is still on the roof (three huge sculptures, my favourite is the balloon dog), and the city skyline at dusk provides an amazing backdrop for these sculptures. We ordered a drink, and shot some pictures and video. And just stood there, taking in the amazing views.

With all the things that we’re doing these last couple of weeks, we’re starting to realize that “this is probably the last time we’re doing this”. Which is a strange feeling. We’re both actually looking forward to return to Amsterdam, see our family and friends, and start working for our companies again. But on the other hand, this has definitely become a second home, so we’re leaving home to go home. Which makes it all strange.

The weekend was beautiful, and warm! We took the A train to 168th street, hopped on a bus and got off at 190th Street. Deep in Harlem. First we walked around to find some coffee, and then we found our way to Fort Tyron Park. On a hill overlooking the whole park are the Cloisters. We walked around for a bit, and quickly found ourselves at the end of the park, so we crossed the street and walked into the next park, Inwood Hill, which is quite a bit bigger.

After a very nice walk around the park, we ended up at the northern-most tip of Manhattan, where a bridge connects this part of Manhattan to the Bronx. People were playing baseball in the park, a little league game was on in the ballpark, and some wonderful autumn colors on display throughout the park. We had some coffee on the corner of Indian Road & West 218th (!) Street, and then made our way back to the subway station.

On Sunday, we had a lovely brunch at Nancy & Paul’s place in the West Village. It was great to catch up with them, and I had my first Bloody Mary. After brunch, we walked to our bikes with Nancy and Paul, as they were interested in them. In the end, Nancy decided to buy Saskia’s bike!

I’ve been slow in updating, but here is a quick overview of what we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks.

Sat, Sep 21

The Woes & Julia Haltigan @ Spike Hill (Brooklyn)

We had seen both of these before, in different venues. This was a new venue for us (fun!) and both of their shows were fun!

Wed, Sep 24

Loudon Wainwright III @ the Highline Ballroom

I’d been looking forward to see Loudon in real life. The last time I came close, I suddenly had to travel for work, and Saskia ended up goign with someone else to a show in Paradiso. And now he was here in New York. With a lot of family close by, so who knows…

It was a weird setting (large hall, full with tables and chairs, and we were put at a table with 4 other people, but very close to the stage). But a great show. With lots of the aforementioned family doing cameo appearances. Daughter Martha sang a song, daughter Lucy did one, and son Rufus joined him for one as well. Lots of fun and joking.

(movie from the show we attended)

Fri, Sep 26

Honky Tonk Angels @ Banjo Jim’s
With Marco and Margreet, we were in the mood for some live music, and decided on some Country Music. SO we went to Banjo Jim’s for the first time. I had read about it before, but we didn’t get around to going there until now. It’s a tiny place, no stage, so the musicians just stand in a corner and play.

The Honky Tonk Angels are not a band, but more a collective of female country musicians from Brooklyn. And so we saw three seperate acts that night, where I think the first one,  Serena Jean, was the best we saw that night. The atmosphere was great, and although it was a little hard to get to the bar and get a drink, we had a very cool night, and will definitely come back to Banjo Jim’s before we leave!

Sun, Sep 28

Country Corner @ The Living Room

One of the organizers of the Honky Tonk Angels night told us about this afternoon get-together. It starts around 4pm, and is basically a sort of open-mic event with all musicians, that seem to know eachother. We ended up there because the rain did not allow us to play mini golf. So after some shopping, we all met up at The Living Room, ordered margeritas and saw a quite a few different performers.

So many different performers, in fact, that I truly believe we were the only people there that were not in a band. There were two or three partners of band members, and then there was us. Therefore it felt a little like an incrowd. But it was fun, and the margeritas were very nice.

Wed, Oct 01

Ben Folds @ Terminal 5

I have seen Ben Folds once before, in Cologne. And when I saw that he would be playing in New York, I first emailed Viktor to tell him he’d be playing in Den Haag as well, and then ordered tickets to go and see him in Terminal 5, a place we hadn’t seen before.

We were there quite early, so after the age-check (always bring ID!) and the ticket-check, we had some time to check out the venue before the opening act, Missy Higgins. It is actually quite a big venue, with the main floor an dtwo levels of balconies, both with bars. Sort of the same setup as Paradiso in Amsterdam, but a lot larger. One of the balcony levels has a lot of couches, where we sat and enjoyed a drink before the concert started.

Not having heard of Missy Higgins, we were pleasantly surprised. Fun music!

After that, the venue actually got a lot busier, and we found a place to see the concert on the ground floor. Ben Folds started off with a lot of the very new songs from the album that was released a day before. The strange thing was that, for a number of the new songs, two versions were played. He explained how those extra versions had come into existence. Basically, they were afraid that the album might be leaked prematurely, and that people would be downloading the songs off the internet.

To try and prevent this from happening, the band wrote alternate versions of all the songs on the new album, during a flight to Spain. In 8 hours, they wrote new versions of all the songs on the album, music and lyrics. And some of them were good enough to warrant a performance during this gig. Very interesting to hear completely different versions of those songs, and to be honest, I would not have been able to tell which of the two would be the official album version.

Although the new songs sounds great, somehow it’s always a bit nicer (to me, at least) to hear more familiar songs. And we were treated to some of those later on in the concert. The highlights for me were renditions of ‘Missing the war’ and ‘Army’, both of which involve heavy interaction with the audience. The first one was directed by Ben Folds, dividing the audience in three groups that each sing a part of a chord. It never ceases to amaze my how cool that sounds, and how “in tune” it sounds.

In the original version of the song “Army”, there is an interlude played by a clarinet and a oboe. Two tunes that sort of cross over eachother. During the concert in Cologne, he directed this bit as well, to great effect. However, in this concert he didn’t do anything. But apparently, a lot of people had seen one of his concerts before, because at the moment that that segment should start, almost the whole audience sang either one of those two melodies, and did that very well. Chicken skin! (goosebumps, you know)

(This is a version with the instruction)

Fri, Oct 03

Stoney Clove Lane @ Banjo Jim’s
With Mum and Dad, we wanted to go and see some live country music, so we went back to Banjo Jim’s. We saw about a show and a half, and Stoney Clove Lane was good enough for me to buy their CD.

Sat, Oct 11

Tim Blane @ Rockwood Music Hall

Wow, look at that. More than a week without live music! On this Saturday we went back to Rockwood Music Hall. Saskia had done a little investigation and figured that Tim Blane would be a good bet. And it was. We could not get into the place during the concert before that, so we used the artists part of the bar to get in, and get a drink. When that show was over, quite a few people left and we could get in. And we saw a very nice show. He had brought some fans that knew most of his songs.

Tue, Oct 14

Joe Whyte+Emily Zuzik @ The Canal Room
We had seen Emily Zuzik before, but in a solo show. This would be a full band performance, so we were interested to see how that would be. The evening started with a band around singer/guitarist Joe Whyte. He started with a slow song, where his female bassplayer sang backing vocals. After that impressive song, the rest of the band joined him on stage and they played sort of poppy country music, pretty good. We enjoyed it, but hoped for more backup singing by the bassplayer. Their voices worked really well together.

After that, it was Emily Zuzik’s turn. She’s a tall woman, and knows how to carry herself on stage. But somehow, the sound didn’t really click. It all sounded sort of “thin”, I felt. The songs are great, but somehow, it needed something extra. We did end up buying a cd, as we feel the songs are definitely worth listening to some more!

Tuesday we celebrated Janneke’s birthday in a hotel bar on one of the corners of Washington Square. This bar is one of the many hidden ‘treasures’ of NY. You wouldn’t know that there was a bar unless someone tells you. But at least this one is open to everyone, there are bars where you first have to call an unlisted telephone number…very exclusive. But that’s a completely different story.

So, we sat in the bar with Janneke and Matthias and ordered cocktails (the thing to do we thought in a bar like this). When we were just talking about how nice and quiet this lounge was the bartender told us that any minute now he would turn the TV on for the live debate between Mc Cain and Obama. Oh oh, the one thing worse than shouting to each other during a baseball game (except for in a sport bar) is to try to do the same during a heated talk show. While we were just complaining to each other about this we also wondered where this TV would come from. Suddenly the bartender walked straight to a wall, opened one of the panels and out came a TV. A secret window, cool! Later Jacco found out there was another secret door in that wall, leading to the restroom.

After half an hour or so we were accompanied by Katherina, the owner of the house Janneke and Matthias live in, and Webster her boyfriend. They were friendly, typically hip, successful New Yorkers with a lot of tips and gossip about this city and its people. They told us that the bar housed is home to many professors of The New York University and that he loved this place because of its (usually) quiet ambiance. Two cocktails later Webster (he cal himself Web) talked about yoga and how he can not compete with Katherina on these exercises except for his head stand. Katherina is about 1m 85 (still not uses to the feet and inches) so that makes it more difficult. But of course we challenged Web to show us right there in the bar. Understandably  he didn’t want to embarrass himself or Katherina in this classy west village bar but one cocktail more made a big difference and there he went…on his head, in a yoga stand in the middle of the bar! ‘Very impressive’,…commented a professor who just entered the bar and who turned out to be one of Katherina’s most admired teachers. As Matthias commented, this could have been a perfect film scene…maybe one of Woody Allen.

By the way, we saw many after discussions about the debate and according to CNN’s poll Obama ‘won’ this one with 54% over 30 %.

Last week my mother visited us and I’m going to try to remember what we did.

She arrived on Friday night (12th) at JFK and after a few good hugs we took a taxi to the city. It is so nice to see people’s faces when they see NY’s skyline for the first time! Although it is still breathtaking I will never forget the first time I saw it.  We arrived at her home for a week and after she left her bags in the room we met Jacco downstairs and went for dinner at a French restaurant in The Lower East Side. Again we had to make our way through film crew shooting one of their many series but it immediately gave her a sense of New York.

The next day we had breakfast at Orchard (one of our two breakfast places) and afterwards we walked towards Mulberry Street where there was a street festival honoring St. Gennaro. Those Italians have a lot of Saints celebrations and it involves mainly one thing: FOOD. And lots of it. We tried our luck at a shooting game and walked some more in this neighborhood. Because we had an evening program planned we went home in the afternoon for an hour rest and met again for dinner at the noodle bar, a nice little restaurant in LES where you can have good noodles and other Asian dishes. After dinner we took the train to Brooklyn to find the location of the Rooftop Film Festival. The first time we went there was with Yvon and that time it wasn’t on a roof but in a large garden. This time it was on a roof, the roof of a can factory. The setting was beautiful but also a bit too ‘clean’. It didn’t have the cosy feeling of the garden but it was nevertheless a special place. Like the first time the evening starts with a music performance. This time the singer was not drunk which was an improvement but all her songs had a dreamy, slow sound that worked as a lullaby for the three of us. Fortunately the crowd shared our opinion and didn’t mind our snoring.Then the films started, the theme was  ‘dark comics’. So no nice sweet films about…well,…for example rabbits but scary, dark and cynical films who where often very funny. The amount of bugs however was not so funny, we were eaten alive. And for the first night in many it got really chilly, but that was a discomfort we embraced because that meant better sleep! After the film there was complimentary wine in the inner court of the building which is not a can factory anymore but houses many little ‘ateliers’. The evening ended with a taxi ride with skyline view.

Then next day we had breakfast at the diner owned by our Greek friend and mum had her first ‘eggs well done’. Then we decided we wanted to go to Governor Island, a little island close to Battery Park which is uninhabited. After the last occupants, the coast guard, left nobody is allowed to live there. New York City doesn’t have money to maintain the facilities on the island and so the whole place is up for sale. In the summer they make an exception and you can take a ferry during the weekend to visit the island. So on the day it would become 90 degrees we escaped the city and took the boat which took only 10 minutes to cross but you had a good view on the Statue of Liberty. Every weekend they have a theme party on the island and this time it was Charleston. On the big lawn was stage with a large band playing music from the twenties and a lot of people had dressed up for the occasion. It really was as if cute Doctor Who had offered as a tour with the Tardis. All around empty houses which tried to look pretty but if you looked close you could see the signs of abandonment. A weird island… But it was a beautiful afternoon and from the west side you again had amazing views of the Statue and Manhattan. Back on Manhattan shore we walked to a cafe, had a drink and took a cab home. Trying really hard to remember where we had dinner. It will come to me…later.

Wow! That was my first reaction when we arrived at Angela’s house in Southampton. I had left New York on Tuesday morning, together with my colleague Ruby. We had arranged bus tickets for the Hamptons Luxury Liner (!), and around noon we arrived in Southampton. Angela came to pick us up, together with Anouk, her dog. The idea was that we would be working in her house, and enjoy the pool, the tennis court and the beach for a couple of days. Since Saskia had her songwriting class on Tuesday night, she decided to come to Southampton a day later.

We got to the house and as I said, ‘Wow’ is really all that I could utter. What a house. The bedroom I was assigned with Saskia, was bigger than the apartment we have in New York. Ruby and I got settled in and started to do some work, while Angela went off to do some shopping for lunch and dinner. 

We had some lovely sandwiches and did some more work, and around 17:00 we got  in her little Mini Cooper convertible and drove to the Beach with Anouk. We got a little tour around Southampton, and saw houses that were quite a lot bigger than the one we were staying at!

The beach was fun, and Anouk is a dog with more energy than I’ve seen before. It is funny, as in the office, she’s always sort of lazy, almost lethargic. Her dogwalker has problems getting her out of the office to do some wlaking. But on this beach, and actually back home as well, she is a completely different dog! Running after balls we threw away, after birds and diggings holes in the sand, she kept on going!

Back at the house, we got cleaned up and Angela started work on preparing dinner, while Ruby and I played some guitar. Oh yes, I haven;t reported this, but I’be bought a guitar here. Saskia did bring her guitar, but it’s a nylon-stringed Spanish guitar, and I was really missing my acoustic steel-string. Really, trust me, there is a big difference. So i went on a little shopping trip earlier last week, and found a pretty good guitar (Yamaha) for only 150 dollars. And it came with a little gigbag, a few picks, a strap and an electronic tuner! And since Ruby also brought her guitar, we could play a few songs together.

In the mean time, Angela had marinated some skirt steak (an interesting cut of beef, don’t think I’ve ever seen that back home), and had fired up the grill. We had a lovely dinner outside, with some wine, and later some whisky (I brought the Coal Ila we had brought to New York, but had hardly touched yet).

On Wednesday, we woke up and got back to work. I actually had a phone conference in the kitchen, and we could make our own espresso with the Nespresso coffee maker like we have in the UI office in Amsterdam. It felt almost like being back there, except for the fact that we enjoyed the espresso in the garden, with a view of the pool & tennis court, and Anouk, running around askign for attention. 

Around 14:00, Saskia had arrived at the station in Southampton. She had actually tried contacting me by phone, but reception over there is really bad, so by the time we reached her, she had already been waiting 15 minutes. We got into the Mini again, and Angela let me drive so I could learn how to drive this little beast. After all, she would leave the house on Thursday for a couple of meetings, and wanted to make sure we could get around in her car.

After we picked up Sas, we had some lunch and continued work, while Saskia settled in and did some work as well. For dinner, we went to Sag Harbour, to a restaurant that was apparently redesigned by Donna Karan’s daughter, Gabby Karan de Felice. It is called ‘Tutto Il Giorno‘, a small Italian restaurant with a little patio where we could sit outside for dinner. It was immediately obvious that something was wrong with our waiter. He was weirdly fidgety and absent, and according to some he was probably ‘coked up’. We decided to share a couple of starters and each order a main course.

The waiter suggested a wine that would go well with our starters, and we accepted his recommendation. It was a very nice wine. Then our main courses came out. That was a little strange, as we had not yet seen our starters. He was all annoyed, and said he couldn’t remember any starters being ordered. It was all rather uncomfortable, but our main dishes were taken away, and we explained to him what we had ordered as starters. 

When those finally came out, there was a third starter that we hadn’t ordered. But the ones that we did  (fritto misto, with calamari, shrimp and zucchini, and sea bass tartare) were wonderful, and so was the wine. Our main courses came out (again?, we weren’t sure), and they were pretty good as well. we had a lot of fun, the service notwithstanding. On our way to the restaurant, we had spotted quite a lot of deer. A little early, but they were out in numbers. Luckily, on our way back, in the dark, we didn’t see any of them.

When we woke up on Thursday, Angela had already left for the city. We had some breakfast and coffees, and I had another phone conference, in the garden this time. Very nice! We went on a little shopping trip with the three of us, and then had lunch back at the house. Around 17:00, Saskia and I took Anouk to the beach again. When we got to the beach, it looked like there was some big fire somewhere, with lots of smoke. It actually turned out to be a very dense fog coming in from the sea, and it gave the beach a very strange and eerie atmosphere. 

We let Anouk do her running and digging, and then went back to the house. We had bought some fresh fish (Arctic Char) and giant shrimp, and while I worked some more on a sudden rush project, the girls were cooking in the kitchen. I really didn’t get much more work done, and somehow the dinner lasted quite a long time, possible lengthened by more whisky and a game of dice. By the time we decided to call it a night, my colleagues in Amsterdam were already at the office, and wondering what I was doing online…

The next morning, some work really had to be finished before a phone conference at 10, and then some more work before 12:00. We got the work done, with a serious hangover. The rest of the day we relaxed a bit, with some time in the pool and on the tennis court. And then we got back on the bus, to go back to Manhattan.

We had an amazing couple of days! It was fun to hang out with Angela and Ruby, and it was very cool to see how people in the Hamptons live. I totally understand why you’d want a house out there, as well as an apartment in the city. This way, you can actually have the best of both worlds. 

[disclaimer: part of this post was written last week, and I decided to finish this one before posting about our past week. So this post spans Aug 23 - Sep 1]

And we actually had a long weekend, but no chance to keep you up-to-date. Tsk tsk! I think we owe you a write-up of the previous weekend (Aug 23rd), and everything after that. So how about we keep it really short, where possible?

The main thing I remember from that previous weekend is the fire at Saskia’s Fringe location. There was a tiny fire at the first floor, but the fire department showed up with two full trucks. Will upload pictures at some point, we promise! It was also Saskia’s last weekend at the Fringe Festival.

During the week, I guess the most exciting thing that happened was an amazing sunset on Tuesday night (pictures are available on Flickr, see links on the right) and my birthday on Wednesday. Saskia came in to the office and brought doughnuts from the Doughnut Plant for all of us (very yummy!). And all of us was basically just me. Sandra joined us a little later, but it was a quiet night at the office. Oh, I got quite a few birthday cards and e-cards! Thank you all for those!

After work, we went to the West Village, to have dinner at the Spotted Pig. A great place, sort of a normal bar-like place, but with a really good kitchen. We had some great food, and free champagne from the people sitting next to us. They were celebrating the guy’s birthday as well!

And then, on Friday night, Dana and Wayne arrived from DC to spend the weekend in New York. They had found this little Bed & Coffee place (no breakfast, just coffee) on Avenue C. Since their train had arrived an hour late, we were in a little hurry to get going. Saskia had arranged a surprise that night, and so we took a taxi to Brooklyn. The driver took a strange detour, but we got to a very nice restaurant in the end. They did not take any reservations, which meant we had to sit outside and drink wine while we waited for a table.

After about half an hour, we had a table, outside in the ‘barn’. The menu looked really good, and after some hard thinking we all made up our minds. Then the waiter came, and made me change my mind. The main course he suggested was a cold cut of ribeye steak. We also had some straters to share (which included amazing prosciutto or speck), but somehow they couldn;t manage to serve the house special (meatballs) as a starter. That meant that in the end, both Wayne and I had an amazing piece of succulent ribeye steak with a side of meatballs. How carnivorous can we get?

Although dinner took a bit longer than expected, and Saskia was slightly worried that we were going to miss the surprise she had in store, we got in another taxi to take us to the surprise location. It actually wasn;t too easy to find a taxi to take us there. Aparently, we were going to the end of the world. Or at least, the end of Brooklyn. And taxi drivers get a little scared when that happens. 

But we did manage to find an adventurous driver, who we had to give directions from my Blackberry phone. It actually felt like we were leaving civilization behind when he dropped us on some god-forsaken corner in the middle of an industrial area. I would not be surprised if this was a popular location for maffia hits, or where they dropped people with concrete shoes in the East River.

However, there was a little bar a few doors down, and Saskia confidently led us in. It felt like the place suddenly went completely quiet when we walked in. It really didn’t, but quite a few heads did turn and look to see who entered their place. It was obviously a very local bar, and they didn’t get many strangers in there. No people from Manhattan, definitely no people from Washington DC, let alone all the way from Amsterdam. But after the first, slightly uneasy reaction, it did not feel uncomfortable anymore. 

Saskia took us here because of the band that was playing. She met Osei Essed through her work at the Fringe Festival, and he plays in ‘The Woes‘. They play “a soft, rolling acid trip into soul, jazz, americana, and bayou funk”. Hard to describe, but it was a lot of fun. The room they were playing in was packed, but after two songs they took a break. We found ourselves a spot at a little table, had a few drinks and waited for the following set. They played another set, and we thouroughly enjoyed their music and enthousiasm. Osei was suffering from a voice problem, so it was sometimes hard to understand him, but the rest of the band sounded great.

I guess we had a few too many whiskies, and in the taxi home Wayne fell asleep. when Dana and he got back to their Bed and Coffee, he feel asleep right away. The next morning we were scheduled to have brunch somewhere, but Dana called to inform us that Wayne was in no state to join us for that. He was feeling really rough, I guess he’s been out of training for too long

We had breakfast with Dana, and we walked around the East Village for a bit. Then we went to Midtown, where Dana visited the top of the Empire State Building, and we did so[me shopping and reading. After some more walking, we went to meet Wayne, who was now feeling a lot better. We then walked around our old neighbourhood, The West Village for some more and had dinner at Mama Buddha’s.

On Sunday, we walked a lot more, this time around Little Italy, Soho and Chinatown. We had lunch at a place called Joe’s Shanghai, which is famous for it’s soup dumplings. Yup, dumplings filled with soup. Hard to eat! After we learned that you actually place it on a spoon before biting into it, it became a little simpler. Another bit of walking (Brooklyn Bridge), and then we went home to get ready for dinner.

We had reservations at Centro Vinoteca, just off Bleecker Street and 7th Ave. We were going to meet up with Wei-Li and Karen, Wayne’s brother and his wife. Centro Vinoteca is sort of famous for the fact that the chef there is Anne Burrell, who became famous for being the sous-chef for Iron Chef Mario Battali. Oh, Iron Chef. Something we do not have in Europe. It’s a competitve cooking program, with professional chefs. A great show to wacth, and it’ll give you some great inspiration. 

We first had a drink at a bar in the neighbourhood, and then went to the restaurant. We decided we would go ‘family-style’, ordering different things from the menu to share. What happened was that each of us order a couple of dishes (Dana ordered some of the piccolini, small plates to share, Wayne order a couple of starters, I ordered some pastas, Saskia was in charge of main courses and Wei-Li ordered desserts. Oh, and Karen took care of ordering the drinks. 

We had a great time, and some great food! It was a lot of fun, and too soon it was time for Karen en Wei-Li to leave for New Jersey again. The four of us went to our place, where we had a whisky ( an intresting single malt whisky from Virginia!), before we all started crashing and Wayne and Dana got in a cab to their place. 

Monday was Labor Day, an official holiday, and we spent it by having brunch and a quest for cupcakes that ended at the Cake Shop. We then said goodbye to Dana and Wayne. It is so much fun to have friends over, and show them our vision of New York! And of course, it’s great to see Wayne and Dana a lot more regularly than when we live in Amsterdam.

After our goodbyes, we took a subway to Coney Island. It’s an interesting place. I wanted to go there, because the whole weekend they had a rockabilly festival there. We got there and it looked just like the pictures we had seen of it. It’s a weird and interesting place. Sort of out of time. It looks like a Sixties or Seventies fun fair at the beach. Please see the pictures, they describe the place a lot better than I could do in words. 

The rockabilly festival wasn;t as interesting as we would have hoped. We saw the first part of the ‘Miss Pin-Up Coney Island’, and a band that sucked.  We then decided tp leave again, but not after trying the famous Nathan’s Original Hotdog! On our way back to the city, we got off the subway just before gettign to Manhattan again, just to spend a bit of time in our little park between the bridges. I think I got some really nice photos there!

Then it was off to home, and a simple, home-cooked soup and sandwich dinner. A long and full weekend, but we enjoyed it a lot!

As we mentioned in the previous post, this past weekend we were going to see Ian Parker play one more time. RiverFest in Knowlton, NJ, was the main reason he came to the US. Knowlton is situated on the Delaware, in upstate New Jersey. Hard to reach by public transport, but luckily Wayne and Dana had decided to drive up to New Jersey to come and see Ian play as well.

Dana had never seen Ian play, but does like his music enough to have one of his songs as their wedding dance. And the title is actually engraved in her wedding band! So they could not let this opportunity pass meet the guy and to see him play live.

Wayne and Dana actually drove up to New Jersey on Friday night, and spent the night with Wei-li (Wayne’s brother) and Karen. We took a train in the morning (with a delay, so we missed our connection) to New Jersey, and an hour late, we arrived at Westfield train station. We said our quick hellos and gt in the car to drive up to Knowlton. It was a beautiful drive through New Jersey. It’s very hilly (accidented, as some people might call it) and green. It’s so much fun to see some of the countryside when you’ve been in the city for this long! And it’s great to see that all the things you see in movies are in fact real.

People still drive old American cars, huge billboards along the roads are hand-painted, the mailboxes really do have those little red flags on them, and there is a realty company called Buttzville Real Estate. Actually, that is because that whole village is called Buttzville. Not that I’ve seen that in a movie, but I could easily imagine it being in a movie.

Anyway, we arrived at the festival grounds around 2pm, parked the cars across the street and crossed the street to the festival, helped by some very nice crossing guards. The festival grounds had a very relaxed and family feel to it. Lots of different food, no big chain restaurants in sight and a little festival market. One of the things that immediately grabbed my attention, apart from the bouncy castle, was the little food stall that advertised Alligator Sausage. Intriguing!

We found a place to call our homebase for the day, and draped some picnick blankets to stake our claim. Wei-Li and Karen had brought their daughters, Abby and Jillian, and they had to first go to the bouncy castle of course. We tried to find a pair of shorts for me (I was wearing jeans because we wrongly believed the weather forecast yet again), but were unsuccessful.

In the mean time, we were sort of listening to the music in the big tent and the acoustic sets in the little tent. It was fun, but nothing really grabbed our attention. We just really were enjoying the general picnic-type day we were having, buying different types of food (Jamaican Jerk Chicken with collard greens, plantains and rice, corn-on-the-cob, the aforementioned Alligator Sausage (yummy!), funnel cake and crepes with chocolate and banana) and drinks (mainly water, but some lemonade, beer and wine as well). And we played with frisbees, yoyos and beachballs.

It was a lot of fun, and all very relaxing. At around 6.30pm it was Ian’s turn to play. We went up to the front of the stage, as most of the tent was filled with chairs(!?). Some girls were already shouting his name and trying to get his attention while they were still just soundchecking. Ian had been there last year, together with Morg Morgan. And they wanted him back. Unfortunaltely, Morg wasn’t here this time, so he would be playing with ‘hired hands’. To me, this is quite impressive. A band (drums, bass, keys) needs to learn all the songs from a cd, and then play together with Ian in front of a pretty big crowd.

Part of the crowd was really into Ian and the band, and they were greeted with huge cheers. After the chilled and relaxed gigs earlier that week in New York, it was fun seeing him rock out on his earlier songs with the full band.It was clear that this crowd was here for the blues, and that’s what Ian gave them. Long guitar solos, heavy rocking with the band and some impromptu interactions between the organ player and Ian. And very enthusiastic fans! Like a proper rockstar, people wanted to touch him, and one fan actually got on stage and kissed him on the cheek.

Dana and Wayne were both really enjoying themselves, and I think Wei-Li and Karen did as well. It might have been a little too loud for the little ones though, but they were getting tired as well. They left just before the end of the concert, but not before Wei-Li bought one of Ian’s CDs. That’s always a good sign.

We sat around after the concert for a bit, and saw an amazing full moon rise over the hills. Then we spoke to Ian for a bit, and made our way back to the car to drive home. We still needed some food, and found some in Westfield. We got to Wei-Li’s and Karen’s house around midnight, and were shown our room. We actually slept in the girls playroom (yes, that room is bigger than our apartment in NYC).

After a good night’s sleep, we got up relatively early, and had breakfast in their ginormous kitchen. We played some more with Abby and Jillian (maybe I should not have tought them to play volleyball indoors over the little fence they have…), and then went on our way to the station. Wei-Li had suggested to take the bus back, instead of the train, as there is no need for changing then. We had a nice drive through the outskirts of New Jersey and Newark and got back to the 42nd street bus terminal around 1pm.

That meant we still had some time for ourselves on this Sunday! We quickly went home, and met with Nick (our landlord), who came to pick up his mail. Saskia talked to Isabella for a bit via Skype, and then we got on our bikes for a little ride. We decided to go to Williamsburg (Brooklyn), and decided to cycle over the Williamsburg Bridge. That’s a lot of hard work! You get up really high, wich gives you a great view over the East River and the other bridges.

We had some late lunch (coffee and a belgian waffle) at a very trendy place in Williamsburg, and just walked around the place for a bit. It’s got an interestign feel to it. It’s kinda hip and trendy, but maybe a little too much so. People are really watchig eachother, sort of sizing them up or rating them or something. a little weird. We then got back on our bikes, and cycled down to the Manhattan & Brooklyn bridges. That was quite a ride, and took along some huge industrial areas. But once we got the the bridges, things quickly became very picturesque, and I started taking way too many pictures. They’ll be up soon, hopefully.

We then made our way to the little park that’s right between those two bridges, put our little blanket down and did soem reading. Or, I did some reading, and Saskia just fell asleep :-). Around 7pm we packed our things up and cycled back, across the Manhattan Bridge. Another bit of hard work, and enormously crowded with tourists. But luckily most of them kept to the pedestrian side of the path, so without much problems we arrived back in Manhattan. It’s funny to notice the completely different feel that side of the bridge has!

We parked our bikes at home, dropped our stuff and walked to the a restaurant, that turned out to be closed on Sundays. We looked around a little more and then found Tre, where we had a nice dinner.

And that was our weekend.