Sell your children

So I recently went to the National Grid to set up my gas supply (yes, I should have done this a long time ago, but I forgot then I got a call saying they were going to cut me off... so I paid)

Anyway, this poster was hanging on the wall (actually it was beautifully backlit).

Now is it just me, or are they suggesting that you should give your children to the National Grid?

Certainly the child doesn't seem very happy about the idea.

Robots and Owls

Robots and Owls has to be the best name for any market stall. Does as it says on the tin. Sells hand knitted robots and owls. What more do you want?

B 4 It was cool

Hidden away just off of Houston Street is a tiny shop called "B 4 it was cool" that sells lamps from the original Edison lighting company amongst others. Beautiful things, terrible name.

John and Christiane

After the many, many pictures of Anne that I posted on here after her visit it wouldn't be fair to let my dad and Christiane's visit pass without a photo opportunity.

So here they are on the Highline National Park, happy in the knowledge that it is once again safe to have a tea party

Katz's Diner

If you've watched When Harry Met Sally you'll have seen Katz's Diner. It's the place where Meg does her thing, loudly, and you'll want whatever drugs she was on when she did it.

It's famous for it's pastrami on rye with pickles, which is classic New York jewish deli fare.

So we took a visit there. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the place what-so-every, only the sandwich I ordered, so nothing new there then.

It was a beast. The bread was almost an afterthought compared to the huge pile of hot meat in the middle.

mmm.. meaty (also, delicious).

Locks

On the Brooklyn Bridge, keep a look out for the small brass rings sticking out of the stone. People attach padlocks to them as a kind of physical graffiti. I couldn't find the Led Zeppelin keyring.

Whitney

On friday My father, Christiane and myself paid a visit to the Whitney gallery of American art.

it's in an old brutalist building, and normally contains excellent work. This time however, the artwork was a little disappointing. Even the Edward Hopper show didn't have his classic Nighthawks, which is more or less the only piece by him anyone has heard of. It would be like having a best of Ram Jam without Black Betty.

Anyway, thankfully the place threw up some interesting photo opportunities such as Christiane's doppelganger

(she's the one on the left... or is she?)

And a man fast asleep in a stairwell

We checked, he wasn't a piece of art. Although that would have been cooler.

9/11 memorial statue

The new 9/11 buildings are almost completed, and will be ready in September for the anniversary. Presently if you want to pay your respects, there is a gallery near the site where you can see the plans for the buildings and look at mementoes. The strangest bit is a model of the statue of liberty covered in little relics from the event.

Dad & Christiane

My dad and his partner Christiane were here last week. Good fun it was too, even though it was a mad panic trying to get the place ready for them. I had to go to Ikea on the Friday night, buy a sofa bed, then get it delivered on saturday, build it and redo my place from top to bottom, as the bedbug guy had been around the previous day fumigating it all.

I can report that no one was bitten and the sofa bed was fairly comfy (well, it was as good as you could expect from an Ikea sofa bed)

Pictures of said bed will follow when I get round to photographing my apartment properly, which will probably be this weekend (I need cheap activities to indulge in)

Awesome salad

Salami, artichokes, black olives, roasted peppers, mixed leaves, edamame beans, chilli & balsamic dressing. Try it. It's damned delicious!

Bedbugs

I've been putting off writing this blog for a while, until I know they are gone. But as I haven't been bitten in a week and a half I feel fairly safe in the knowledge that they've gone.

Anyway, as you know New York is suffering a bed bug infestation right now. It's everywhere on the news, on adverts in the subway, everywhere you go. People are kinda crazy about it, and everyone seems to have a story about someone whose life was made miserable by these creepy crawlies.

The worst part is that you can get them from anywhere. The most common cause just seem to be brushing against people in the subway that have them on their clothing. There are people here that won't go to the cinema as some are known to be infested, you can't sit on the wooden seats on subway platforms, in case they are in there. It's crazy!

Well, I'm sorry to say that around 3 weeks ago I started itching. My arms had little bite marks on them, as did my legs. I should say here and now that these bites are not that itchy or that bad. I've had bites from dust mites in old mattresses that are far worse.

After a couple of days of itching I wrote an e-mail to my landlord saying that I suspect my flat may have them. I've no idea where they came from, but I think they are here.

I got an e-mail right back saying that he's sending a man round with a specially trained bed bug sniffing dog to check!

The guy came within an hour (and I went home to meet him)

Nice guy, cute dog.

Anyway, the dog found them, but only in my mattress and bedding, which was weird as these had all come direct from Ikea and arrived wrapped in plastic. Who knows, they may have been on some clothing I put on the bed and decided to leave and set up home in my mattress. Anyway, I was officially bedbug positive (as he put it)

So the next thing I had to do was tumble dry everything fabric I owned, from my shirts to my shower curtain as heat is the only guaranteed bedbug killer (without a licence) before a guy would come to spray the place with some nasty bedbug killing stuff.

I changed the mattress, and probably went a bit overboard getting rid of them.

Not only that but I decided to pour boiling water all over my chairs, as, while the dog didn't find anything in there, i wanted to make sure.

here are my chairs drying in my bathroom.

Artistic eh?

Luckily I don't have much stuff so it wasn't too hard to get everything packed up and put away.

Anyway, now I'm free and clear I thought I'd share all this. It was a little too painful (literally) at the time to write about it.