Friends over, Birthday, Asian heritage party, showing the apartment and Manhattanhenge

Oh, how I love living here! I am slowly starting to realize that we are actually moving back to Sweden soon. So, now I tell my friends here – not Good bye, but Auf Wiedersehen, Arrivederci, Until we meet again… Johan must come here every now and then, and either if I go with him or maybe go by myself just to say hello and live the city for a little second, once in a while. 🗽💗

Marika and Fredrik were here for four days, and we had a great time with many walks and laughs!

Also, it was my birthday last Saturday and I was so celebrated. I even heard morning song, guitar play and got lovely presents and rhymes too.

The only thing that you could complain about was the weather, the rain was pouring the whole day! I am usually spoiled for glorious sunshine, so this one was new. But it didn´t matter, it was a fantastic day. 🙂

The next morning we had a really nice breakfast at Three of Cups on Sullivan Street. Highly recommended! Then we strolled up to Chelsea Market and on to the High Line. In the afternoon it was time for our friends to back home to Sweden. ❤️👋👋 Thank you so much for these days and see you soon!

In the evening, Johan and I were invited to Andrew´s place, which was the venue for this Grand Potluck, AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) edition. So Andrew was hosting this event and this guy Gary Su was the one who organized the party.

At Andrew´s – lovely homemade dumplings and many different sake´s

I have also done my weekly appointment at Jay´s. Today he had an apprentice, who will run his job on Tuesdays during summer. My homework until next week is to supply Jay with Swedish music – and he really does NOT appreciate ABBA…

In the afternoon I ran a 10K on Hudson, so easy to do when you have so many people to watch at the same time. 🙂

Olle came home from school and had seen Marcus Samuelsson across the street. 🙂 Next time, he has to stop him for a picture! He was apparently as smartly dressed as ever.

As from yesterday our apartment is out on the market again, mixed feelings as for so many things right now… So now we have opened our home to new speculators.

Little ducklings in the pond in Rockefeller Park

During the last weeks, we haven´t seen Toff much due to sickness. So finally Elvira and I picked her up at Andrew´s apartment, took a long walk along on the Hudson. A more energetic and happy doggy is hard to find…

Later on that week, Johan and I had dinner with Curtis and Jen at the Sugarfish on Spring Street. The Evens is a really sweet couple and the restaurant offered amazing food, and both Jen and me celebrated belatedly, as both had birthdays just a few days ago. 🎂

Last Saturday Johan and I walked down to the Whitehall Terminal and catched a ferry over to Staten Island. Elvira and I have been there once, but today we did a longer walk and ended up at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanic Garden. A very desolate and boring road to get there, but it was in itself a lovely excursion destination! We even got to listen to a band preparing for their Farewell show… The musical experiences just kept on coming, as a baseball game was about to start in the stadium.

Once back on Manhattan we met up with the kiddos who were down at the piers. Here also, a lot was going on with parties, music, Saturday runners etc.

Sunday and Mother´s Day in Sweden. This we celebrated with a long visit at the gym and also an amazing oyster lunch at Grand Banks at Pier 25. For dinner I made a nostalgic dish, which my mom used to make when I was young. I love you! ❤️

Memorial Day, May 29 and all four of us took the train over to Brooklyn and strolled around in Prospect Park. Designed in 1865, the park is considered Frederick Law Olmsted’s and Calvert Vaux’s masterpiece. Prospect Park is a milestone in the 19th-century movement to create naturalistic parks in America’s cities as a response to increased industrialization. He and Vaux thought of Central Park as their trial run, and when they started blueprinting Prospect Park they were able to correct their mistakes from the first time around. 🙂 For instance, in Central Park there are roads running right through, but Prospect Park’s road runs around the outer ring of the park, leaving meadows, ravines and groves untouched, so once you’re inside you can ramble through nature without coming into contact with a car or vicious jogger. The lake is also bigger and blessedly unhindered by tourists at the Boathouse.

Also, it was noticeably more multicultural than for example in Central Park on Manhattan with lots of different music vibes and food on the grills. Almost everyone was barbecuing (not permitted in Central Park), listening to music, playing games or flying kites. 🪁🍗☀️🏉🎸

This evening we had a late dinner at our closest restaurant, Altro Paradiso. A more luxurious Italian and it is located in the same block as we live.

Around 9:00pm there was this really bad smell of electrical fire, and I have never seen so many emergency vehicles at the same time. There had just been a fire accident one block away on Sullivan Street. It happened in an apartment on 4th floor in a 6 story building and a father aged 95 died in the fire and his son was seriously injured. So sad.

Manhattanhenge – sunset aligns with Manhattan’s street grid and Tuesday at 8:12pm it was time for Full Sun on the Grid. We walked up to 14th Street, and it was so crowded! My pictures do not make it justice, but it was a beautiful in real life experience…

Today was a Toffee-day, so cute after a day at the groomer. She both got a haircut and bath. She followed to the famous ice cream parlor Morgenstern´s on 88 West Houston Street. We had to keep her under close surveillance on the way home, due to an abundance of marijuana cigarett butts lying around on 4th Street…

Once back in our lobby, I emptied our mailbox and there was a letter from my chiropractor. A greeting card with a lovely text and a gift in form of a free birthday adjustment!