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.