Sport around New York

I've been surfing 2 more times in Long Island (pictures coming soon), and the season's not over!
Jean-Luc and Fanny brought me a Decathlon rashguard from France so now we can be team Tribord with Vincent when we go surfing.


Also went on a longish bike ride from Manhattan all the way to Rockaway beach, riding on the Brooklyn bridge, different neigborhoods of Brooklyn, Coney Island and Rockaway which has a totally different feel from New York. Only got rained on once
:-) Purchasing a bike this year was definitely a great idea.



Also, when I find the time, I go running to Central Park to train for the NYC half marathon (coming up in two weeks). Here are a few pics of the Japan day race. I know I haven't trained enough this year, just hoping to finish the NYC half in a decent time.

Back on the right track

Yes, I feel I am back to life, after a few difficult weeks.
I've been living an active lifestyle lately, going out quite a lotand balancing with a lot of climbing.

Jenny took me to the Jazz at Lincoln center, where we had the best seats in the auditorium, and I was able to meet Wynton Marsalis backstage and speak to him for a minute! Very classy jazz, with the Lincoln orchestra virtuosos and many guest star players.






I also went to one of my first NYC art exhibition opening, in the Meatpacking district. The major pieces of Japanese artist Shinjo Into were on display. I was surprised that people did not seem to care about the buddha statues and calligraphies, but were more there for the scene. It was great for people watching: models, hipsters, cool photographers etc.... I met Kaori and her friends there and we headed to Buddakan afterwards... Which is an even nicer restaurant than Megu, and affordable! I think I have a new favorite in NYC now...

Picture courtesy of the New York Times, how can you not be amazed by the main dining area?:




And, last but not least, Arnaud took us out for a low key birthday party at Fat Cat, a jazz club I hard heard of a lot in the West village. The place was yet another excellent discovery: huge cavernous room, lots of obscure microbreweries on tap (you all must know I'm a beer snob), tons of sofa to sit confortably listening to the live band, and games (chess, ping ping tables, billiards etc). We had a great night, and I even beat (almost) all of them at ping pong. Damn, a crazy Alskan guy showed up at our table and eventually won every game....

As Arnaud says, this city is infinite...

Central Park Bouldering

While I am slowly starting to recovery from injury and wondering what kind of activity I'll be able to do this summer (if any activity at all), MPHC has organized a bouldering session in Central Park.

They came out with really nice pictures!

Be sure to check the whole 3 pages: the sighting of crash pads in the subway makes good shots.

Latest pictures (hopefully last snow storm)

View of the backyard in winter




Jn & Elise's apartment in Harlem




Eglantine @ Morningside Park




Monringside Drive




UWS slush crossing




Typical UWS restaurant bathroom




Artistic view of Hudson river luxury condos




Columbus Circle




Snow heap in midtown

Weeks around town

I'm still waiting for winter to go away and looking forward to the "good season".


It actually feels like it is the beginning of the good season: friends are starting to plan their visits from overseas.


For two week ends I hosted Eglantine who was on her way to Minnesota for work.


It was a good occasion to go to MoMA and see the Jeff Wall exhibition. He makes stunning photos, that are semi transparent and very bright when placed on back lit displays. Nice exhibition, and enjoyable by a large audience. I mean, this is some rather classic art display for a modern art museum.

We also went to a couple of nice restaurants, mostly in the Upper West Side: Malaysian Grill (most of my readers should know this is my usual cantina!); a place that claims to have the Best Burger on Earth; and two sushis places: Haku and (my favorite): Asiakan, a new Panasian restaurant on Amsterdam and 95th st. I particularly recommend the Spicy Tuna roll!

Other places I discovered over the past two weeks: Kemia, a Moroccan lounge/bar near Times Square that I had wanted to go to for a long time, and Park, an upscale club in Chelsea, where I was invited at a birthday party yesterday. Two trendy places that I will add to my of "must see" for my visitors who want to go out for a drink ;-)

Last but not least: I've booked the flights to Puerto Rico! Elise and I are going there in roughly 2 weeks now!

Walks in the City

A few pictures taken pictures before the snow came... And the cold weather settled in... Can't wait for Spring...



Click on the picture...

New York moments (VF)

Le WE dernier a ete tres sympa, avec plusieurs sorties dans le village, le long de l'Hudson et a Harlem, avec Katia, Braloo, Eric et Nicolas. Soiree memorable au St Nick's pub, un peu "Freak show" avec beaucoup d'impro: l'homme qui se prend pour Ray Charles, un clone guitariste de Stevie Wonder avec des ongles de 10cm de long, la serveuse qui vient chanter "A love supreme", puis un groupe de Jazz africain qui a chauffe la salle a blanc. C'etait assez enorme, d'autant que Nico et moi etions au premier rang!



Et dimanche matin Nico m'a force a aller courir a Central Park. Aie, premier footing en 4 mois :-) et oui ca passe vite, la derniere fosi que j'ai couru, c'etait le marathon! Bon, ca s'est bien passe, mais aujourdhui, j'ai des courbatures partout!

Et oui c'est deja lundi, et j'ai experimente pas mal de "New York Moments": essayons de voir si j'arrive a transcrire ca par ecrit.

Deja, plantons le decor: aujourdhui c'etait alerte au gaz generalisee a Manhattan. Pas du cote de mon bureau, mais de nombreux autres on ete evacues, a casuse d'une dorte odeur de gaz dans la rue et les batiments. Et aucue cause n'a ete trouvee. Personne n'etait tres rassure ce matin. Deja que l'annee derniere ca avait senti le sirop d'erable pendant plusieurs heures et que personne n'avait compris pourquoi.... Y'a des fois on se demande ce qu'on fait ici, tous entasses sur cette ile bizzare ou l'on a l'impression que personne ne controle rien...

Une autre grande aventure ce matin fut ma premiere visite a un cabinet de dentistes ce cote ci de l'Atlantique. Apres 2 ans ici, il etait temps. D'ailleurs ma tentiste (francophone, ca fait moins peur qd on part vers un territoire inconnu) m'a trouve plusieurs caries :-S
1h15 plus tard, apres plusieurs radios, une bonne seance de nettoyage etune carie en moins, je passe a la caisse. Meme si je fais partie des "privilegies" qui ont une assurance sante, j'ai qd meme du debourser $170, a cause du deductible, l'espece de franchise annuelle de $150 sur les soins. Le prochain plombage ne me coutera "que" $50. Ouch, j'ai failli m'etrangler quand j'ai appris qu'un plombage coutaint $250! Bon en tous cas, j'y retourne lundi prochain pour la suite des festivites, la dentiste est tres sympa et je suis deja tres soulage de savoir que ma plus grosse carie a ete aneantie!
Je suis quand meme pas tres malin. j'aurais pu y aller en France il y a 2 semaines...



En sortant du bolout ce soir, je passe a la poste de Grand Central pour poster les cartes postales que Nicolas n'a pas eu le temps d'envoyer avant de sauter dans son avion (en + ca sera la classe le tampon "Grand Central, New York City"; et je passe par la gare pour prendre le metro. C'est toujours tres beau, avec les illuminations, mais ce soir encore plus, avec une guitariste qui chantait Summertime dans les couloirs. Ca fait un peu cliche, mais c'etait superbe!

Moving: the consequences

or Why I hate moving...

The trip to Ikea has been productive, but exhausting... So many people: it seems that the whole New Jersey population goes there on sundays.

It's been 3 weeks and I don't completely feel at home yet. A lot of work (painting, re-do the bathroom) has been done but it's still not finished.So almost every night we have contractors staying here until midnight. Nice people but quite loud.So it's either we have dinner in while they're here or we go out and when we come back we have to wait for them to finish their work for the evening.Plus sometimes they cancel without notice... Very frustrating. They were supposed to finish tonight, but I don't think they will. At least one more night... They always have an excuse not to work at the week end :-(

Elise has been decorating the apartment in the meanwhile and it looks really good now. The place is bigger than the previous one, and cheaper (thanks Harlem), so it is still very promising. Hopefully all the problems will be fixed soon.

Among other disturbances:
-the Internet is broken, so I have to sneak into the neighbor's intermittent connection. I can't post pictures until this is repaired...
-the heating for the building has not been switched on yet. They made a few attemps, but it smelled so bad (they were strong fuel odors in all of the apartment) that they had to stop it. It's now winter weather and pretty cold outside... Pretty cold inside too at times...

I hate moving...

This week end is going to be the move week end.
I'm not so thrilled about it :-(
We're moving out only because our landlords forced us to. They upped the rent going up by 20%! That can happen only in New York!
Anyway, we'll move 31 blocks to the North, Harlem next to Columbia University. Elise will be able to walk to the lab and hopefully my commute to midtown should not be much longer than now thanks to the express subway.

Hope I will survive...

Fortunately, I have a long week end with some climbing planned to relax after this stressful move...