UPDATE

Here we are – on 24th - in the Grill Bar of the hotel – which is adjacent to alcohol, of course – on the day after St George’s Day. Breakfast, American style, has been ordered and after a deep conversation about English breakfast tea I am trying to make sense of the past two days. Michelle has now inserted the photo from The Three Magpies which is certainly one for the archive. I think it deserves the caption ‘The Only Gentile in the Tribe! However, move on, stir the pot and hope it comes out a strong brown – second tea bag has just gone in. I suppose it is King George’s fault for upsetting those Bostonians centuries ago.

Now, to catch up, on Monday twenty-second. It was a quiet day and we went up above the ‘hurley-burley’ of Manhattan. This was one of our ‘target-events’ to walk what is left of a freight line that is labelled ‘The High Line’. For me, this is something that deserved to be preserved. The southern end had been re-cycled but public voice had ensured the rest remained instead of wiping some more history away to build a new stadium.

If you visit this city it is well worth the walk. The photographers were in their element with shots along the length, down onto the street and upwards to the high rise tops. Birches, Cherries, Forsythia with many other shrubs all under-planted with grape hyacinths, daffodils and multi coloured, multi-fluted tulips brought great colours to our morning. All of this in juxtaposition with metal railway lines, concrete and wood. Then there were the sculptures, wall art and the ubiquitous graffiti – all tasteful of course.

I have got my ‘snaps’, my notes and maybe I will get some decent lines from my experience. Awesome!

TUESDAY morning saw another season in NY. The temperature had dropped too bloody low and foolishly one member in the group had decided that a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge was the must thing to do. This was a very poor decision in cloudy, windy, cold conditions with the temperature peaking at five C. It was not the best of days and my intention was to go to The Churchill Bar to celebrate England and St George. I declined but Yvonne and Michelle had a successful evening there while Robbie and Neal renewed their acquaintance with The Heartland Brewery on the next block over.

WEDNESDAY had been reserved for a carriage ride in Central Park. Michelle missed out on this last time and ‘she sure has hell’ was going to do it this time. Yvonne and Robbie accompanied her while I went for another walk-about in the same park while Neal took more photos.

Four of us lunched in The Heartland Brewery on 43rd Street, whilst Yvonne rode an open top bus around Harlem. Neal and Michelle made a belated visit to The International Centre for Photography. Michelle thought that it was a brilliant exhibition but Neal was not enamoured by it. The first exhibition was photos by a photographer called Chim whose photographs showed some of the history of Europe from 1933 to 1956. The second exhibition was photos taken by Roman Vishniac of Eastern Europe and specifically Jewish life during and between the two World Wars.