Posted on 1 June, 2023 in Birthday, Family and Friends, New experiences, Toffee

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!

On Monday Toffee will be spayed and will then wear a bodysuit. We have been promised to come by on Tuesday and just give her som love and cuddle.

Next week is full of work events and dinners for Johan, I am invited to one of the happenings at the Knickerbocker hotel. Look forward!

Posted on 16 May, 2023 in Birthday, Family and Friends, Music, Toffee, Violence

Appalling start, chanced upon a Swedish painting, lovely happenings, Staten Island and Mother´s Day

First, I have to write about the commencing week of May – an awful start with lot of violence at a too close range. Monday started with an unhoused man getting killed in the Broadway/Lafayett subway. He had been allegedly yelling and ranting on the train before being subdued by another subway passenger, who chokehold him and it is now ruled as homicide. (Even seen it being covered in the Swedish news).

The day after, there was a slashing on Olle´s campus in Chelsea. There was an altercation between some students from another school connected to the same campus. One hospitalized but luckily without any life threatening injuries…

That same evening, Johan´s friend from primary school was here on holiday and ends up in the hospital nearly bleeding to death, after being attacked by a person with a baseball bat in Soho. Miraculously he is doing well after this head trauma and was able to go home that same week.

Rifle lottery on a bulletin board in the southern of US. Posted by angry person in one of the Swedish groups on Facebook. Also, misspelled…

Enough about those terrible incidents, and Imagine all the people, Livin’ life in peace…🎶

It really wasn´t all bad (except from also a quite tough food poisoning, I omit the all gross parts)… It was also a week full of great hanging out with some of my besties here, Ilze and I had an excellent lunch at Ladurée. Furthermore The Liljelunds had lunch with The Liljerts at Móle on Jane Street, a really tasty Mexican. Plus, Elvira and I were lucky enough to meet up with Karin and sweet little Mimmi at Soho Park on Prince Street for lunch, this was a great day…

And Tilda turned 24 on May 5 🎂🎁🌸🌷🌼🥰🐱❤️🐈.

On May 7 there was a bike race, and a lot of streets were closed to car traffic. This weekend was also full of sunshine, drinks and dinners. I also went to Chelsea to pick up a funny painting from a nice guy named Steffen.

So cool to get this painting, from one Swede to another

Monday morning and Elvira is reading aloud the article by James Baldwin, A Talk to Teachers from 1963. The article is about the history of black slavery will always be a boundary between black and white people in US, as it can never be forgotten. This is actually what Olle has been discussing in ELA in 11th grade, but not wrong for an 8th grader (or for a mother) to read, comprehend and try to analyze. Link to the persuasive essay is found here.

And finally, summer is here and will probably stay until October. ☀️☀️☀️

At last, we have found a spot of lawn for Toffee! She is allowed to walk, sit and lie on it. Unfortunately all she is aiming for is to eat the grass… Later in the afternoon she was all grunting, coughing and almost throwing up. Anyway, she is so adorable and she is sooo in love with Elvira – guaranteed a mutual feeling.

That same Monday it was 37 years since my dad passed away. ❤️ I then was the same age Elvira is now, that puts things into perspective… Here´s an amazing song, a tribute to a parent from a grown up child.

We also had the Exterminator over once again, it seems a hard work to get rid of those ants. They are probably entering our apartment by rappelling the facade from the garden on floor 7… 🤣🤣🐜🐜🐜🐜

Suz and I grabbed a coffee at Laughing Man Cafe last Tuesday and her dog, Lucky, joined the party. It is very interesting to hear about all Suz´s stories, as she has lived here in the city for nearly 30 years…

Last Thursday Elvira and I took a trip over to Staten Island! So glad we did and hopefully I get to go there once more before we go back to Sweden.

On 1 Train down to Whitehall St-South Ferry

Last Friday was a Jay Day! I really enjoy our small talk about music, books and writers, all of which take place during his spinal adjustments and manipulations…

This day I learnt about a book that he is currently reading, called The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven. He also loves Fredrik Backman, adores “Anxious People” and he has even seen the Swedish version of “En man som heter Ove” with Rolf Lassgård. He is still not sure if he wants to see the American version with Tom Hanks. 😉

Furthermore, he strongly recommended me to listen to BBC´s Desert Island Disc, especially the episode featuring Jens Stoltenberg. Jay is really into the Swedish and Nordic cultures, except that he will never get a Dragon Tattoo. 🐉🐉🐉

This same Friday, the temperature hit 87°F and that is relatively hot when in a city. Luckily, we have the Hudson River close by… Toffee also appreciates a cool drink in the shadows.

In the evening we hung out at Nat´s on Bleecker, a neighborhood local restaurant with New York classics but with a touch of whimsy.

Saturday morning and I did my first 10K run since Governors Island. In the afternoon we watched Eurovision (we skipped the broadcasting at the gay bar Hardware, due to no kids allowed 😉 ). And congrats to SWEDEN and Loreen, so cool!

Sunday morning and I awoke really early, since Malin and I were heading for Harlem and to the Misa Gospel Church. It was an exciting experience with African-American vibes and the entire service today was about honoring all mothers. We will give it another try with a Baptist church some other Sunday, where they might sing more of the common gospel we are looking for. But – so sad to see that East side of 116th Street is an area full of only junkies and unhoused people…

About Mother´s Day, it is a really big thing here. Also, two weeks prior to Sweden´s Mors Dag. I received congratulations from both our neighbor Andrew, and from the advisor of Elvira´s former school. In every store you are greeted with a “Happy Mother´s Day” (regardless of whether you have any kiddos around or not). And I got presents! Lots of hair care products – wrapped in gift paper and with rhymes! 💗

In the afternoon, Olle went to the barber for a haircut and then we just hung outside.

Monday 15th and the final day for Olle (if he wants to) to change his options for the Swedish highschool. All papers should be OK, so hopefully it will go smoothly for him to go back to school in Sweden.

We have a fun week ahead of us! Marika och Fredrik are coming here tomorrow and will stay until Sunday. We will probably do a lot of walking and sight seeing since this it´s their first trip to New York.

Next Sunday evening Johan and I are invited to a potluck at Andrew´s place, where we will celebrate AAPI Heritage Month. The Asian American Pacific Islander heritage recognizes the contributions, histories, and cultures of AAPI individuals and communities in the US, and we will be approximately 35 people at the gathering. We still have not figured out what to contribute, I was thinking if we can bring Vira´s classic Swedish “chokladbollar”. 🙂

On top of all this, our flight back to Sweden has just been booked for the end of June. There are many feelings swirling around at the moment! 🙂

Posted on 30 April, 202311 May, 2023 in Birthday, Family and Friends, Toffee

Best Product, Quarterly report #3, Hayden Planetarium, Friends over, B-days and Toffee back in da House ❤️

What a great two weeks we have had! It started out with temperatures around 88°F and summer was all over the place.

Johan was away in Vegas for the NAB Show for six days, where DanAds also were nominated in “Best product of the year”. And they won, biggest congrats!!! 👏👏👏

Elina and Johan at the NABSHOW – receiving DanAds´s award as Product of the Year!

Meanwhile, the rest of us hanged out on Manhattan. I had some lunches with friends, ran down the Hudson, sunbathed on the lawn at the pier and every water fountain along the Hudson River Park opened. 💦

Elvira got a little itchy rash on her hands and feet, so we went to the MinuteClinic and got some meds. This day I also submitted her Quarterly report #3 and I used the sentence “May include but will not be limited to…” in every subject. I have still not heard anything, so hopefully the report is accepted.

At the time of writing, Olle just received an email from “bildningsnämnden” in Sweden, asking him to submit his American grades. He is applying with his final grades from 9th grade, so we´ll see what will happen now…

A couple of weeks (!) ago, our dishwasher broke. A guy came over twice, just to inform that it will be replaced. No one really knows when, though… 😉 So at the moment we punish the dish soap!

Last Tuesday Malin and I had lunch at Björk, always so good food. The day after, Johan came back from Las Vegas and Olle, Elvira and I visited the American Museum of National History and also the Hayden Planetarium and we watched the show “Worlds Beyond Earth” in the Space Theatre. A really fun and interesting day.

On this day, Toffee also came back home – a happy reunion. 🐶

Unfortunately, she must have picked something up on the street or ate some grass, because she had some stomach problems when Andrew picked her up from her dog watcher. He took her to the vet and now everything seems to be fine with our little furriend.

A bit melancholic to walk past
Elvira´s old school

Last Wednesday the Skullmans came! 🥰🥰 They have been in NYC before, so we did almost no sightseeing, but more of our everyday life here.

We filled our days with lots of walking. One of the trips went over Williamsburg Bridge into the hasidic Jewish community. We were stopped in the street by two hasidic women, who told us a little bit about themselves, soo interesting!

Then we dived deeper into Brooklyn for some thrift shopping, or at least to look. Then we strolled down and walked Brooklyn Bridge home.

We made a stop at the Essex Market on the way

On Saturday we climbed the Little Island, had take-out lunch from Just Salad, checked out Chelsea Market and Washington Square Park. In the afternoon the Skulls went window shopping on Broadway, and I took a run at the Hudson. In the evening we had a table at Lena, Sébastien is starting to remember us. 😊

Sunday was a great sunny day and we took the A-train up to Lido in Harlem and had a nice lunch. From there we headed towards Columbia University and the whole university was filled with graduating students.

After this, we walked down to Central Park and wandered around in all the blooming greenery.

Happy B-day Oscar, turning 25 yo! 🎈 This day we celebrated with a palatable and delicious dinner at Tamarind, a really nice Indian restaurant in Tribeca.

The next day Cilla, Henke, Oscar and Edde left for Sweden. It was so nice to have them over and we´ll see each other in a few months. ❤️

In the afternoon we took Toff for a walk and also paid the library a visit, and we ended up with at least one new English book for Elvira to read.

I have finally visited a gallery. 🙂 It is located on Walker Street in Tribeca, one of David Zwirner´s four venues in New York. Suz and I went there to see the exhibition “So let us all be citizens”. Really colorful paintings by Bob Thompson, whose life was sadly cut short. After the exhibition we had lunch at Edward´s, a nice diner on W Broadway.

We will keep on being cultural, so in a couple of weeks we will visit a whole bunch of galleries around Walker Street, followed by lunch. Love it!

And of course we often hang out with Toffee. She has even been let into the dog park, and last time she met a new friend there, a 2 yo gentleman named Louis.

I both see Jay the chiropractor, and run my miles on a regular basis. Actually it doesn´t hurt as much as before, so I have big hopes of being fully recovered.

Last Friday Johan and I celebrated our 16-year engagement anniversary at a newly opened Italian, right around the corner of Sullivan and Spring Street. Closer to home is hard to find! Bandone is so new that it almost doesn´t show up on Google… A really cozy restaurant with maybe a little too small dishes, yet delicious and with such attentive and charming staff.

This day Alma came to clean the apartment, so Elvira and I first went to Ground Support Cafe to study and then we went to ‘Essen for lunch (first time and just around the corner). We had some wonderful laughs taking funny pictures and on the way home we played tag – never seen so many happy faces enjoying our game in the street!

_{(Note to self – remember to continuously still try to be spontaneously open-minded)}

Today is Walpurgis night – anyone heard about that in English?! Had to look it up, and there it was – Walpurgis… The thing that really counts though, is that Amos the famous turns 11 today. 😻

So today is April 30 and tomorrow we wake up to one of the best months of the year! Here, May 1 is like any other weekday so the kids have school. Meanwhile, I’m meeting Ilze for lunch at Ladurée in Soho. 🙂

Streaky rain the whole weekend… including lightning and thunderstorms

Hmm… after seven months of leaking problems in Elvira´s bathroom, they completed it with a hole in the ceiling, to channel the rising water into her shower drain. The dripping is visible in the picture…?! 😂

Posted on 13 January, 2023 in Birthday, Family and Friends, Schools!

A New Year, Sweet 17 and applying to Swedish schools

Last Friday was a big day – Olle turned 17 years old, but still had to go to school! We started the day with morning song and presents and in the evening we had dinner at a Moroccan restaurant, Ives, in Tribeca. He also got a lovely cake from his friends at school. 🎂

After dinner, we strolled home and shared our elevator with a young couple and the girl started to talk Swedish to us. Her mom apparently is from Sweden and lives just a block away. Her boyfriend´s mom lives in our building, which they were heading to. Fun trivia. 😂

On Saturday Johan and I power walked through East Village and in the afternoon all four of us went shopping with Olle, he had gotten a gift card at Zara. All four of us even hit the gym on Sunday and also managed a visit at the Guitar Center. Olle is shilly-shallying about buying a new acoustic guitar with nylon strings. 😘

On Monday I got a text from Malin (one of Lotta´s friends we met for lunch last November), asking if we should grab a coffee at La Cabra in the afternoon. We had so much fun and decided to meet up with our families next time, so we will have brunch at Lido in Harlem in a couple of weeks. Also interesting to experience that borough a bit more!

Now, I have applied for Elvira to start Skolhagenskolan in August. Feels almost like when we moved here and had to fight our way into the school system. For Olle, we are waiting for him to receive password for applying to senior high school. Fingers crossed.

This week Johan has a bunch of colleagues over, so he is quite occupied with meetings, dinners and also a trip by train to Washington DC. I would have loved to join! Instead I am going to botanize among my recently delivered painting stuff from Blick, since the online class starts soon. 🙂

I have also been to my hair stylist Hailey this week, and it is so much fun to chat with her. On my way over to Fox & Jane, I took a detour through Chinatown and walked, to me, new streets.

Yesterday, after school Elvira and a friend went to watch a basketball game with the boys´ team from her school. 😊 Olle and I took the opportunity to do some running on the treadmill at Planet Fitness. 💪

We have some problem with our radiators and pipes leaking water, which has resulted in some floor boards bulging upwards and Gabriel, connected to the owner of this apartment, tries to get a plumber here to look at it. But there are always some excuse for not showing up, so I wonder if there is a jinx on this radiator!

Tonight we are going to try a new Italian, Extra Virgin 😉 And if the weather allows, tomorrow Olle and I will run down the Hudson River Greenway at dusk, it is a different ambience to it when it is getting dark. On Sunday Ilze and her family are coming over for dinner and on Monday schools are closed due to Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Finally!! Part I completed…

Taby goes SoHo

Reality check – relocating Taby, Sweden to Manhattan, the USA

Category: Birthday

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

Appalling start, chanced upon a Swedish painting, lovely happenings, Staten Island and Mother´s Day

Best Product, Quarterly report #3, Hayden Planetarium, Friends over, B-days and Toffee back in da House ❤️

A New Year, Sweet 17 and applying to Swedish schools