where did that week go?

hey all

good god, i can't believe that it's been over a week since my last post... i have been staying at a different apartment 'cat sitting' for the last 7 days - needless to say, that i'm glad to be back at the old apartment, even though the shower here is terrible!

quick info on the last week:

friday - regular friday morning lecture with frouma - a very passionate, religious, jewish, ex-teacher, woman - she's a bit of a bossy boots, but we have fascinating conversations, albeit slightly exhausting! second appointment with lovely janice, she showed me a photo album that her family had made for her, pics of her from childhood, marriage, kids, from the 1920s to the 1970s, quite wonderful. final appointment with ann, more shopping! then off to yoga and then to west side midtown to see inception at the imax. great film - great twisty story and good cast (a good sprinkling of brits too!) i really enjoyed it.

saturday - sue (the lady whose apartment i'm staying in) left me 2 tickets to the american museum of natural history which had to be used by today - so i went along there with lucy. not my usual kind of museum (no paintings!) but it was interesting, we went to the planetarium there, much bigger and more swish than the old london one (rip!) with voiceover by whoopi goldberg - weird! then we visited the silk road exhibition which was interesting and then we went to the imax in the museum and watched a film about the hubble telescope - even weirder that it was voiced by leonardo di caprio... 2 imaxs in 2 days both with leo! had a quick whizz round the geology section, purely for me to look at the gems... oh beautiful sapphires, topaz, rubies, etc. came out of there and walked down central park west to look at the dakota where john lennon was shot, then popped into central park to have a look at strawberry fields where there is a kind of shrine to him - see pics... in the evening went over to williamsburg for drinkies - williamsburg is cool and laid-back and nice - we all liked it there and i'm sure we'll be back...

looking up in the museum:


eeek! a dinosaur!


the dakota from strawberry fields:


strawberry fields:


the 'shrine':



sunday - went to my regular sunday midday yoga session which is helping me keep sane. then i'm moving today so i go to pick up the keys from their apartment - they're off to the hamptons - lucky them! then dashed off to the old apartment to get changed and off up-up-uptown to meet steve for a bizarre and fantastic musical experience! there's a lady called marjorie eliot who has lost 2 of her 3 sons, so in celebration of the lives of the 2 who've died, she opens her apartment every sunday afternoon for a musical session including jazz, broadway songs, old songs and poetry from an assorted bunch of people. what a fantastic experience - i sat there with my jaw on the floor for most of it - please look at the pics, it's too difficult to describe, needless to say, it's small and intimate, no need for any amplification in her living room/kitchen/hall where rows of fold-up chairs are placed for us to sit on. her living son rudel, was just amazing, gorgeous singing voice and amazing piano player. there was a french saxophonist, an asian trumpeter, marjorie and her son taking turns on the piano, a female and male poet. never been to anything like this before but it touched me very deeply - big wow - bizarrely steve found it listed in his lonely planet guide! it finished around 7.30pm and it took forever to get home, pack, move stuff, feed cats, do laundry, eat food (at 11pm and i hadn't eaten since breakfast around 11am!) - fell into bed completely exhausted...

an unassuming apartment building in north west harlem:


the 'stage':


and the audience area:


marjorie and rudel:


the 'band':


the poets - the lady is Dfaye and the chap is Roger:




right - i'm gonna post this now and more updates tomorrow...