The next visitors

were Adam and Sara. Short but very sweet. I'm catching up on blog posts so can't remember exactly what we did - apart from get bagels, go walking on the highline in Chelsea and introduce them to one of nyc's supposedly best burgers at ShakeShack. And Barneys coop. This is Adam, Ruby and the son of a friend of Sara's (whose name I can't remember sorry Sara!).

And for the rest of September & October

here's a few highlights:

Stroll around west village and highline with Zoe who was in NY for a few days.

Ruby climbing the rocks in Central Park in autumnal sun!

And surprise - more Ruby looking cute, with absolute - can go nowhere without - best friend Mickey

Thalia's 2nd birthday party. Very sweet.

And then it got to the end of October and the madness that is Halloween in this country. People go to TOWN. This is Ruby staring up at one of the houses across the road.

And then the next group of visitors - Lizzie, Meir, Tali, Yoni & Lia

It was a full house. 8 of us in the flat was cosy but good..Ruby loved being with her cousins, and I LOVED having my sister and seeing the kids (and you Meir of course).

Here we all are at the Brooklyn Childrens Museum.

We also checked out Crown Heights which was interesting...

I took Lizzie to a Sheryl Crow concert at Radio City (where we discovered how much younger than Sheryl's other fans we were), and took them to our favourite steakhouse. They were busy, did NYC to the full and I think (and hope despite me being quite miserable and sick for the entirety of their trip) had a good time...

Let's pick up where we left off - Al's parents visit

Lots of fun. Ruby particularly enjoyed being spoilt rotten by grandparents. I enjoyed being cooked for..sorry G and T would have written more about your trip but I've got alot of blog to catch up on! Suffice to say it was lovely to have them here.

The reason for the blog absence

It's been a really really long 13.5 weeks but I may just be coming out the other end. Starting to have pockets of the day where I don't want to throw up. I'm sure I'll be very happy once I get over this!

My mum's visit

It was really lovely to see my mum. In fact the first day she arrived we got the piano (after the mani pedi). Ruby - delighted to see her, and very eager to receive all the presents she bought for her while she was here..

Lots of barbies in the garden:

We had a night at ours when my cousin Yossi happened to be in NY with his wife Lilach and very well behaved kids Dassy and Stav. We also had Ethan and Vanessa over and Charlie and Roberta. Alot of Wantmans in one place, does not happen often.

But then happened again in Boston. We did a really nice long weekend in Newton where alot of our family are. It was my great uncle Sylvan's 93rd birthday so all their kids came into town. Sylvan and Florence were on brilliant form as normal, Peggy & John were there, Richard came from Seattle, Saul Abarbanel (Yossi's dad) who's usually in Israel happened to be in Providence so came down for the evening, and Andy was there with his beautiful kids Rebecca & Emily.

We don't have much extended family in the UK so it feels great to be with all our lovely U.S. family, we've had such a nice time. Although of course mixed with a bit of sadness as it makes me miss my dad alot.

Ruby had much fun climbing furniture with Rebecca & Emily.

And I did!

I bought an old piano. Love Craigs List. I'm extremely happy but v little time to play it. When I do want to play Ruby gets annoyed. But I will find the time and am very excited!

The new addition

Dining table is new. Main achievement of weekend. Somewhat pikey underneath the white tablecloth but Craigs List inventory isn't what it was. Now we just need chairs.

We've had a nice weekend - very relaxing, also included a trip last night with friends to a great Mexican restaurant in Spanish Harlem (which we discovered is now called SpaHa) as well as a piano viewing. Thinking of buying an old upright piano.

Tell me about it

Al calls it his crown but its clearly and unforgiveably blatant balding. Poor love.

Jamaica + Fire Island

Although the blog posts largely focus on NYfuntime, we are both actually working incredibly hard and were in huge need of some city escape downtime.

We headed off to Jamaica late July to Jakes Resort which I heavily recommend to anyone planning a trip to Jamaica. Thank you very much Zoe for a brilliant suggestion. Most relaxed we've been in a long time.

The hotel's in one of the quietest places in Jamaica - Treasure Beach. There are maybe 20 rooms or little cottages which are all individually designed and look over the sea or are kind of in the sea. We woke up every day to the waves.


We bought Ruby a straw hat but with Al's penchant for hats she didn't get much of a look in

This was the extension of the little terrace outside of our room. Amazing!

One day we took a trip to The Pelican bar. Really just a way to get tourists to spend more money on the boat trip, the lunch etc, but so inventive and beautiful you don't mind. It was in the middle of the sea, about 20 min boat trip, and the guys in the bar catch and cook you a very fresh fish lunch while you go for a swim.

So all in all we had lots of laughs, and were in heaven.

Celeste - Ruby wore the dress you bought for her lots - it's gorgeous, thank you!

This was the little restaurant next to the hotel. Al literally bought the T-shirt.

He was very happy.

There was a beautiful salt water pool just in front of the hotel restaurant which all overlooked the sea. Ruby having a quick post-dinner skinny dip.

Another photo from our room to our balcony and the sea.

After ten days we came back from Jamaica to wash our clothes and went straight to meet Pamela and Armand who rented a house in Fire Island for the week with friends. Fire Island is basically a huge sand dune only a couple of hours from nyc so there was a few more days of fun in the sand and sea before going back to work.

A truly great two weeks off.

Happy Birthday Sophy

Sorry to not be there in person Sophy. Happy happy 30th my love, have a fab time in Paris with the fam and Adam.

Ruby has a little message for you. xx

A garden in New York is special

In the heat of NY summer when it's over 100 and really sticky, we're grateful for the garden which seems to be quite a big deal in NY. The general reaction seems to be 'wow you have a yard?'. Unfortunately we don't have much space aside from our yard to actually live in. Nonetheless a place to jump into the paddling pool & sunbathe when Ruby's asleep is very much appreciated. And Al's putting on the barbie almost every night, also appreciated.

More to come on the new table and (thick, comfortable, not just those piddly thin crappy) cushions. All finely picked out from a selection of Craigs List / k-mart / ebay. Baited breath. I know..

But what I'm loving is the plants. Today our big hibiscus produced it's very first flower. A stunning red specimen. I've been waiting, not very patiently, for it to flower for over a month. And today was the day.

Here's a little teaser of what our very own English garden has to offer.

Another fun night with Pamela & Armand and Lila the Styler

At the Boat Basin. On 79th street - it overlooks the water. After dinner we walked back home along the west side highway bike/pedestrian path which is v beautiful. Ruby pushed her mini buggy (thank you Benjy for that buggy, cant leave the house without pink buggy and baby)

Ruby had fun. Lila thought it was hilarious. Armand and I just followed suit.

The neighbours

Are fabulous. Ruby spotted a floating Dora balloon next door and the music was pumping loud. So I put her on my shoulders to help her peep over the fence and start jiving.

The next thing I know we're invited next door to join what turned out to be a very hedonistic adult orientated 3 year old's birthday party. Sound systems, DJs, karaoke, marguerita bar and alot of parents and kids up for a party.

After my 3rd glass of pre-5pm wine Al had to drag me home. I did cook them a burnt-ish version of my apple cake last night to thank them for welcoming us - we had a great time. Very very cool neighbours to have.

And I think Ruby looks particularly cute in this one.

53 West 94th Street

We finally arrived at 94th street - our new apartment which we've signed on for 1 (or 2?) years. It's been a journey.

After just over 3 months in the midst of Time Square chaos we are very happy to escape to the green pastures of the UWS - and LUCKILY Al arrived with his visa the night before the move!

But since we didn't know until the day whether or not he was going to make it, Gillian & Tom had booked to come over and help Ruby and I move. So reinforcements arrived about an hour before Al did.

In any case it was a huge help having them here and we are incredibly grateful for the helping hands.

Here we are packing up at 1600 Broadway.

There were a few teething problems with the new apartment....after a hard days work for all four of us one of the many problems was that the toilet flooded. Having witnessed Gillian and Tom sweating and toiling away in the garden in the blazen sunshine for 4 hours and after shifting many many boxes - I felt bad that they would wake up in the night to find the guest services a little lacking.

They were unbelievably helpful despite all adversity - babysitting whilst Al and I did a Saturday night classic at Ikea and building much of the furniture also. Still, we found time for some walks around the new area.

But it's amazing to have Al home and be in the new flat, which we're still getting sorted.

But we're getting there

I went to Mexico with work for the weekend last weekend and Al had a football day with Ruby. Who's fast becoming the Gunners dream that Al's been training her for.

Ruby and Al hanging out with Lora and Thalia.

Been a while

It's been ages - so what have we been up to since Mohonk. Well there was Ruby's birthday on 8th April which was great. Al and I took the day off work, took her to Chelsea market and let her dive into a huge Elmo cupcake.

As we came towards the end of the green card process we went on a quick trip back to London to do the final stages - medical and interview at the embassy. It was great to spend some time with family and the friends we were able to catch up with. Ruby and I headed back to NYC last Sunday but Al is sadly stuck in London as the American embassy wait to receive the all clear from the dutch government that he didn't commit any crimes between the ages of 16 and 18. Ridiculous.

So Ruby and I have been living it up without daddy! well not quite - missing him ALOT but today (Saturday) was actually a really fun girls day out. We went to the butterfly exhibition at the museum of natural history and once Ruby got over the fear factor of being surrounded by them I think she enjoyed it. Probably not as much as me. We also checked out our new neighbourhood in the upper west side and peeked in on our flat, scoped out the nearest duane reade, nail bar, breakfast stop and entrance to central park. I'm very excited. I then took the strange decision to walk home with Ruby from 94th st back to Time Square. No flip flops are comfortable enough to take you 45 blocks. We stopped for a bite along the way then played on the terrace this afternoon where we met a little friend for Ruby.

I've also just arranged to go to see Jeff Daniels at City Winery on Monday night with a friend. He is apparently an avid blues writer. Interesting...

Anyway, Al I do really really miss you. Ruby and I can't wait to have you home.

Nobody puts baby in the corner

In true Dirty Dancing spirit we headed up to Mohonk Mountain House in the Catskills for a long easter weekend of family fun. This place was hilarious, we had a great time and enjoyed the spa bit alot, but there was definitely some wierd american stuff going on. I was waiting for the fat owner to come round the corner and say 'so I finally got you up here on my mountain' but alas he didn't.

It was very much a family fun place - as much (good) food as you can eat, lots of beautiful walks, hiking and scenery and activities galore. One of my favourite ones was something we didn't partake in ourselves but caught some final glimpses. Seems everyone had made their very own instruments during the session which culminated in this wonderful procession..

The weekend was seriously nice though. The place is surrounded by thousands of acres of woodland and is set upon a gorgeous lake. Ruby and Al had fun on the swings (maybe Al had more fun than Ruby) and she got quite attached to the Koi in the pond. Still can't stop saying hello koi.

We did lots of nice walks and it felt like a huge break to get out of our time square madness. Plus we were v lucky with the weather.

We did participate in a few of the activities though - including the bag-making session in anticipation of the crazy easter egg hunt organised (by age group very carefully) for Easter Sunday. I don't have any pictures of the actual hunt. I was making sure Ruby didn't get trampled on by hundreds of other children and at least picked up one chocolate while competitive dad Al was on the hunt for the top prize! He didn't get it.