Windows at a glance

Hi All,

Since I ventured into the area of architecture (see the previous post), I think it is only fair if I mentioned something about another architectural feature  - the window. 

If the door plays a role akin to a book cover, would it be right to call the windows book flaps? And as book flaps offer an overview of the book without revealing the whole story, so do the windows grant you just a glimpse of what’s inside. 

But that's where the similarity ends.  If the content of the book flap caught your attention, reading the book will be the obvious way to satisfying your curiosity, but windows never reveal the identity of what and who lies behind them...

The images that I would like to share with you today are also a part of my extensive photo library. You might notice that none of the them represents a commercial enterprise of any kind and I have a very good reason for it.  But that is the story for another post.

Meanwhile, please enjoy

Jerusalem

Greek Islands

Tel Aviv

Barcelona

Greek Islands

Prague

Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Nice

Nice

London

From Riches to rags

Hi All,

I have done it again, I have completely neglected my faithful readers and for that I apologise.

On the other hand, I have been busy with a few projects that I will share with you in my next post, and it is not an empty promise, truly.

But for now, I would like to continue to share with you some more photos from my trip to the US of A. This lot represents some very funny and some downright crazy shop fronts and signs.

 Louis Vuitton window display

 Ice cream at Tiffany, anyone?

 Harlem

 Only in America

 Why not, indeed?

 Not for the faint hearted

 My favourite

 No dog, no entry

 Warm welcome!

What can I get you - a bra, perhaps?

Time warp

Hope you found these photos as amusing as I did.  Til next time...

New York Street Art

Hi All,

This is going to be a short post - they say a picture is worth a thousand words, and I could not agree more.  Please enjoy.
 

Harlem

 

Manhattan

 

Magic door, Soho

 

Harlem

Soho

Manhattan

 Harlem

"Back to the USA!"

Hi everyone,

I am back from an exciting trip to South Africa and the US of A.  Since it was my fifth visit to Cape Town, we spent most of our time there with my in-laws. The excitement kicked in when we landed at JFK airport in New York where we stayed for 2 weeks.  One of the highlights of this trip was the wedding of the daughter of one of my oldest girlfriend’s, whom I last saw in 1992 before I left Russia for Australia.

It was a wonderful event that took place at Midtown Loft & Terrace with a perfect view of the Empire State Building. 

Armed with New York: 50 Adventures on Foot, we experienced this megapolis from a totally different angle. The guide comprises 50 cards, each one outlining a self-guided walking tour with a detailed map on one side and insider information on the other. The majority of the walks take place in Manhattan and that - together with the position of our hotel, Le Parker Meridien on cnr W57 & 6^th Ave - made a perfect match.

It was whilst on “The Met” walk that we stumbled across Jonathan Adler’s shop on 1097 Madison Ave & 83^rd Street.  A man after my own heart, Jonathan Adler is a furniture and accessories designer with a penchant for Happy Chic. I couldn’t help myself and bought one of the many fun, funky, quirky and adorable porcelain figurines in the store, a Grey Fox.  When we finally made our choice, the salesgirl said, “I promise you will have a lot of fun with Mr Fox.” 

Well, I am not sure who had more fun because Mr Fox spent the next two weeks inside my suitcase in bubble wrap without a molecule of fresh air.  When we finally opened up the package, you could almost hear a sigh of relief from all of us including funky Mr Fox.  Needless to say, he now takes pride of place on the shelf in our living room. The two small vases on the left were purchased at West Elm on 112 West 18th St, a great destination for reasonably priced, not-so-trendy but modern and slick furniture and accessories.  I also ended up buying a cushion cover from the Allegra Hicks collection. 

To my delight, I’ve discovered that West Elm and Jonathan Adler both ship to Australia, but a quick calculation of the shipping costs proved that “reasonably priced” would no longer apply. 

However, considering the items they have, it may be a case of “sacrificing your wallet for the beauty of the purchase”. It may not be so sensible but what the heck!

On this note, I think its time to close Chapter 1 of my 2011 US of A trip. I will write some more about the trip next in the next blog.

What I ate #1

Hi again,

A promise is a promise and keep the promise I will. But first - a prelude.  When we travel we follow more or less the same routine, sightseeing (shopping) by day and entertainment by night.  My husband (likes to think he) is a bit of a food connoisseur and makes a point of dining at at least one very posh, famous, 3 Michelin star, celebrity-owned, ranked-top-in-theworld restaurants in every city we visit. Hence, when we planned to visit Copenhagen last year, we thought of Noma. As you do.

We knew Noma had a waiting list of at least 3 months and we were only going to be there for 3 days, but my husband called them from Sydney and asked to be put on the list regardless.  I continuously teased him about it, until on our second day in Copenhagen he received a phone call from the restaurant.  It turned out that someone had cancelled their booking and there was now an opening for lunch.  Needless to say, we both immediately shouted YES. As superficial as it sounds, a meal at Noma was on our “bucket list”. 

People do not go there because they are hungry and are just after something to eat; rather, it's an opportunity to dive into the amazing and unique world of a super-talented man, to feel inspired by him, to share his unique approach to food and life, to taste dishes you cannot find anywhere else - in a gastronomic sense, that is.  We were served 17 dishes in total and, whilst they were all memorable, I will recount just a few. 

When the maitre d' showed us to our table, we noticed that the waiter was trying to re-arrange some flowers in a vase on our table.  We didn’t think twice about this until she pushed the vase towards us and there in the middle of the bloom were two edible snails, one for each of us.  It was challenge #1 and we had no choice but to tackle it, and tackle we did.  I must say, the snail tasted good. 

Our next challenge was presented to us in a non-descript glass jar full of ice with the lid screwed on tightly.  When the waiter open the lid and showed us what inside, we gasped.  There, on top of the ice cubes lay two very much still-alive shrimp. 

Yet again, we summoned up our courage and reached for the shrimp.  When I took mine out, it was still wagging its tail.  The waiter saw the horror on my face and took mercy on me.  He pushed some sauce towards us and told us first to dip the shrimp in it before popping them into our mouths.  I can’t honestly tell you what it tasted like but was relieved when it didn’t jump out of my throat. The following courses were of less adrenalin-pumping but still astonishingly challenging and unpredictable nevertheless. 

At some point, they brought us raw eggs, butter, two small frying pans, a bunch of spinach leaves and a timer, and explained that we had to cook our own egg omelette. We had a lot of fun with it. 

Another dish was a plate full of soil (edible, of course) with some exotic garden vegetables, the other – a recreation of the ocean bed with seaweed, shells and the like, every piece looked so natural that we had to ask a waiter for guidance as we couldn’t determine what was edible and what was just part of the setting.

As for desserts (my favourite part of the meal), there were several: berries in snow, chocolate buns in the shape of a huge snail and white chocolate in the shape of a bone, the role of bone marrow being played by salted caramel.