Hanging my head in shame

...at how lazy I've become. I am undeserving of this blog. But...been so busyusyusyusy! With happy happy things! I will have to begin with a photo splurge...partly because that is the only way I can remember what has been going on.

New developments, new faces, all kindsa new food and new fun activities. Here we go:

Well, first...Wave drew on Joe's face with permanent marker. This doesn't really fall into any of the above categories but it happened and there's a picture so it must be blogged. Also his pitiful pleading for her not to draw on his face was balm to our dark twisted evil souls. Hahahahaaa the Fourth Floor Coven strikes again! Look at the terror in his eyes.









Let's see. Well since my last update was the Thursday of Carnegie Hall madness, I am astonishingly behind...so I will go from Pancake Day.

Tuesday was Mardi Gras if you're from New Orleans or Pancake Day if you're from Merrie Englande. Which I am.

Lengthy discussions over what exactly constitutes a pancake did not deter me. If it's pancake day I will eat pancakes! And I will eat them like I would at home! This is how the discussion arose, in fact. Because the American pancake is very different from the English one, and then you get a Frenchy type person chucking crepes into the mix and also flapjacks? Now that really got me.

Observe:



We have the American, the English, and the Froggy. All clearly very different. I'm not exactly sure what the difference between English pancake and French crepe is...BUT IT'S NOT THE SAME OK!

And finally to confuse things further...




Mmmmm delicious tasty flapjacks, oats and syrup and sugar and butter and whatever else you may choose to put in theeem...






Aaaand more delicius tasty flapjacks and - waaait a second. Those are frickin pancakes! Gaaaah stop renaming things things that are already named those things!





Anyhoo. In the end I got quite vehement about the need to eat non-American pancakes on Pancake Day, and so after some Googling set off with Joe to one 'Crepe du Nord' which is located down below Wall St.

While so this was new territory for me.

It was very hustly and bustly down there with lots of nice buildings...inc. this somewhat significant one - hello Traaaading Flooooor! The Stock Exchange. Hmm, I stood in front of many many illions of dosh that day. Joe used to work in a building right down by the waterfront in the Financial District so he has a fair amount of local knowledge. Things I learned:

This place is very historical and here's why.It was on a night in August 1775, in the build up to the war, that Fraunces Tavern first gained notoriety. A group of American rebels, including Alexander Hamilton, set about dismantling British cannons at the Battery. When these young patriots were discovered, a British warship in the harbor fired the first cannon ball of the Revolution, which subsequently crashed through the roof of the tavern.

Samuel Fraunces, master of the house, was a passionate but secret patriot and used his position to spy on the unknowing loyalists. Fraunces passed information to Continental Army officers, and this loyalty would later secure him a short-lived position as President Washington's steward.

At the end of the war, after the last British soldiers had left America, it was at Fraunces Tavern that George Washington gathered his officers to bid them farewell. Washington was much beloved and delivered a speech in the tavern's Long Room which has been remembered for its touching eloquence. The museum holds in its collection the memoirs of Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge, which documents this famed farewell address.

So we wandered in and had a look around. Many other significant buildings were pointed out to me. Sadly I am a Neanderthal and cannot remember the rest of them.

Anyway we came to the most important building, Crepe Du Nord, where I had originally intended to get a classic lemon and sugar...but was so overcome by the other temptations on offer that I succumbed and got a deeelishus chocolate raspberry concoction with ice cream...and Joe got a crepe with cloudberry syrup.

Yup...cloudberry. Mostly out of curiosity as to what the fudge a cloudberry may be.



Voila. Small Eastern European berry, looks a bit like an orange raspberry, tastes a bit like apricots. Tasty.

Also, funnily enough, the building we were in turned out to be historical too. The waitress told me it used to be a brothel frequented by Mr Washington. Hmm.






Views from the waterfront...where you can see Lady Liberty. I will never forget the first time I saw this view, must've been very close to this time last year.
















And err well we know who that it, that is me.

Anywho after the picture taking and history lessons and general wandering, we went home via the liquor store for GIN AND TONIIIIIC! Those who know me well are aware that I adopted this as my drink a while ago and now I have a deep affection for a G&T. So we enjoyed an evening of clinking ice in glasses (or in Wave's case, red cups) and laughing at silly stuff...it was almost like being at home!












At some point in the past week, the heavens opened and we had apocalyptic rain. It was truly epic, I brilliantly wore my holey Converse so enjoyed soggy feet all day long. But no matter, was an enjoyable day spent wandering the Upper West Side doing my best Gene Kelly impession, and then a very weird movie that was good but came to a really abrupt halt...so abrupt in fact that we were a bit startled and didn't know what was going on. But that' indie art-house films for you.

Hmmm Blogger is doing weird things that are making me nervous...so I'm going to quit while I'm ahead and publish this before it can delete it all or something. Love and peace and peace and quietxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (HA not)