Meeting an Ex in New York.

Tonight I took a walk along West 49th and Broadway, and up to Columbus Circle , New York , New York .

This was to meet Karen, the very inspiration for starting BlogBS5 in 2007.

A title I never thought this Blog would see, but it is one I am very happily posting. Karen and I saw each other briefly for a month or two prior to starting these posts: we enjoyed trust and gaiety and delight, and they were happy Bristol days.

K now lives in New York with her husband and son and she has been in the city for eight years; we reminisced about Bristol - she was BS4 while I was BS5. It was fun to revisit a moment of being thirty-something a decade ago.

Happy days indeed.

Trust and delight on Columbus Circle.

New York stories: getting there.

This has been a long day of many miles and much anticipation and excitement. 

About seven years ago, a New York trip was on the cards for my fortieth, considered a year out from that occasion. 

I am eternally glad I did not go then, but I am pleased I am doing so now, at 46, and writing this first account of it whilst coming into JFK (we are about an hour out, at 36,000 feet and somewhere over Caraquet, Canada).

We started our day in Bath (4983 km away, says the map) and the different modes of travel have been taxi, train, coach transfer, walk, walk, walk, lift, escalator, automated train, mobile steps, 747, upgrades! Yes indeed, an hour in, we were invited to fully flat recline seats and all the delight of Business Class on British Airways.

New York is an hour ahead as I write , although five hours behind on our internal clock, so a long day indeed. A cab ride beckons from JFK to West 49th St and our apartments, and then the effort to go to bed after another hour so that we fold into local time accordingly!

Pictures for this post are all the transport excitement encountered and the general fun of a day crossing the Atlantic (which I still can't quite believe we have done!) 

I have to say it is a bit swanky in Business class, with tea in a china mug; scones, cream and jam; and more leg room than a man of six feet four could possibly need. 

New York stories, day one. Getting there.

Chairs moi.

A happy and silent time just setting these up.

I like sitting at this table on my own.

A man with a (G) Plan.

This evening I purchased six dining room chairs, a task I have been mulling for about a year.

The current table and chairs are thirty five years (and three months) old. I know this because it was 1983 when we welcomed them into the house I grew up in. When my mum and dad replaced them as they moved house, they came to me as I was about thirty two and had purchased my own house here in BS5. The table is bullet proof but the chairs have seen their years, mainly owing to Wavey leaning back on them ALL THE TIME!

So now I have six G Plan dining room chairs that are, in fact,  a decade older than the ones I am replacing. They are green, they are elegant and they suited me a treat. They also came from a pal on my road who recently moved house but buys and sells chairs and tables as a comfortable side hobby.

I had to google G Plan after the purchase - it made no real impact on my decision to go for it.  High Wycombe firm , started in 1898 and going strong ever since, commanding quite the resale value for 60s and 70s models.

I do like my new chairs.

A fine Easton Saturday

This weekend was a weekend at home. It was very neighbourly indeed with chats (and beer) on the wall with neighbours from five houses across the day.  I helped a good neighbour Anne move out of No.100 to a flat just around the corner.  I also threw some paint on my own walls and cleaned the windows a treat! A very long day indeed with tasks from 05.30, through to a deserved pint about fifteen hours later. I do love BS5, Easton and Barton Hill.

Sunday (today) is second-coat Sunday for the 'Manhattan Grey' that is going on the walls, followed by a fine dinner of a pork biryani which I will make a bit later!

Nous sommes en vacances.

At the start of the month we packed the car for France.

Boris dog has his passport and he came too, with a scan, a check-in and a visual nod at the ferry! We drove a couple of hundred miles inland from Caen and ended up at a stupendous Chateau in Troo, just a touch south west of Le Mans. 33 degrees each day and gentle exploration of nearby villages, markets, streets, shops and the obligatory boulanger!

Cheese, wine, chatter, patisserie and gentle company as four hounds and 12 people circulated through the house....along with Eros, the fantastic village weimaraner.  We took turns to cook each night and ate well and memorably. We were a lovely mixed bunch and our trip was based on the Le Mans Classic meeting, detailed in the previous post. Impossible French style.


Fine driving, geeky MPG triumphs, taking lovely wine home, and a fine resting week from work. I had a terrific two hours of quiet, from one until three in the morning on our first day, just contemplating being  while everyone else was asleep. I indulged in wine, cheese, ham and contemplation. 'Twas ideal .

Big tick for France....New York beckons next.

24 hours at Le Mans

This impossibly titled post covers an unexpected and fantastic day and a half at Le Mans, where a pal of mine was racing a 1960s Marcos car at the Le Mans Classic. It was a Marcos his father built and raced for the 24 hours in 1965, and it still looked fast 53 years later. I took two trips to the circuit and had an access all areas pass. The circuit was full of impossibly stylish French gentlemen-racers who most likely had a vinyard to go with their Ferrari, Porsche or GT40.

My day visit was car prep’ and I actually helped in a very minor way (helping Chris adjust the anchoring for his seatbelt, and holding the bonnet for a fibreglass patch). The night trip was a racing visit, with three races between midnight and three. The noise was fantastic, the atmosphere electric and the speed of the Jaguar D Types thrilling! A faboulous, spawny and surreal day, for which I am super grateful!