Day 4 Meat, Heat and Art

The day starts slowly, the sun really does seem reluctant to get up, not BAM as it is at home, more tickling the trees, being really gentle on our avenue.  I sleep soundly, helped by the over the counter sleeping tablets somewhat...anything that makes me sleep beyond 6am... Well I get to 6.30, but that's better than 5am...

Tea made by my beautiful husband and some alone time with Rupert Everett (is he the biggest bitch BUT the most beautiful man ever?) and I am in my shorts and ready to run... My calfs are tight, too much walking in flat flat shoes, so it feels good to be in my trainers....I run. Along the avenue, past the bagel shop, past the laundromat, past the blocks of flats, past the NYPD cars.....turn down the block and start to run back.... So easy as it is all on blocks, don't even have to think about the direction of the cars, it is right there on the sign.... It is hard though, this running stuff, I am too fat which really doesn't help my knees and its damned hot.... I also am loving the architecture too much, and nearly trip and fall as I gaze up adoringly at the buildings.

Still, home to cereal that tastes like America and more tea, and leisurely get ourselves together and head out to see art.  Lots of Art today. (Bugger, just lost all my typing) grrrrrr. The heat and noise of central Manhattan is killer and it is a relief to get into the air conditioned calm of MOMA....MOMA - wow! One of the top modern art galleries in the world.... So excited! I obviously think it is terribly important that we start on level 4, but Sam & Daisy see through this and my desire to immediately see the Rothkos is squashed and we start conventionally on Level 5.  And it's good.  I know I am usually full of HUGE splashes of love and adoration, but on this occasion MOMA is just good.  Perhaps we are really spoilt with the Tates and the Pompidou, but MOMA does not blow me away...

 I love seeing the Van Gough is wonderful, to be up close and to see the brush strokes...*sigh* and of course the Cezannes and the Monets are beautiful, but there are notable omissions, especially in their contemporary collection... Nothing too edgy, no Basquiat no Keith Herring... I am not bowled over by their photographic collection, some interesting work of course.....but nothing that really stops me in my tracks as there was at the Pompidou or even in the photographic collection at the V&A. Obviously it is hard to leave the Rothko.... It really is beautiful, and colourful.... But then we have the amazing Seagram paintings at the Tate that are mesmerising

That fill you so totally that time stops..... So was MOMA good, for sure. They have a wonderful sound exhibition that had some pieces in I thought were interesting and my favourite piece was by a Scottish artist which featured an elephant (he filmed an elephant in an art gallery and then it is played back on HUGE HUGE screens) and a darkend room.  Beautiful...

Huger drives us from MOMA and into Central Park... we buy a map and then discover that the map only covers half the park!!! What a fix.  We eat, we walk...damned that park is big, it really is hard to get a fix on the size of it, you walk and walk and walk.... Each area looks so familiar, parts seen in endless films....was that where the filmed Enchanted? Was that the bridge from the Fisher King?  Where did they throw the snowballs in Elf.... Hours of film spotting... We grab a burger and sit watching it all happen...the extra friendly waitress, the man doing tai chi, the extra rich family with teenagers, the strange singing violinist in the tunnels. We stand by the side of the boating lake, with its strange greenish tinge and turtles pop their heads out YUK... Nasty. We all watch the people boating on the lake, watch the man fishing out the coins from the fountain and lay on the grass...take time out...just like everyone else is.  I still can't begin to express just how BIG Central Park is.....and we only say maybe a third of it.  

Refreshed we decide to move on, we walk past Imagine, the Lennon memorial garden and out into Manhattan again....the subway is dusty and REAL hot, by contrast the Trains are cool, tempting just to stay on and keep riding. But we take ourselves out at the Meatpacking District... We wander the streets, a vintage shop in mind, but more just to see what it is like.  As comparisons go it has a Chelsea feel, very VERY upmarket, we wander into Chelsea Market, which is similar to a newly decorated Camden Stables market, very swish, extra large ice creams for me and Daisy...a nice place to wander.  We can see the Highline and decide that perhaps we can wander along that tomorrow...and come back to Chelsea as there seems more we would like to see.  

We are knackered.  Jet lag finally wins over enthusiasm and all a little grumpy and hot, we call it a day and head back to the serenity of our apartment.  Daisy decides to get some space and retreats into her IPad - not surprising, we are all used to having space, for a sociable family, we like our own company, so she decides to stay in.  So Sam & I wander, go down to the bustling Mexican place at the end of the road, all fairy lights, big brash loud....the customers and the food.  Frozen Margaritas and the biggest corn ever....We get some space to chat, muse about the art we have seen, Daisy gets time to chat to her friends...

And Relax.