#9 - A second home

I have a second home in New York. It's not really a refuge where I go to for a weekend away. Also not a particular place to sleep or to have my things neatly at hand. I could never afford it anyway. Rather, this is where I go to rest my eyes and mind. And challenge other senses. This national historic landmark devised in 1858 is the home to many species of plants and animals. However, I think the animal that most profits from its existence, in my biased opinion, is the Human. This is the iconic Central Park.

Like animals in the wild

Central Park has been referred to, and depicted in, an "endless" amount of movies and cultural manifestations. Before I ever visited it, my mental image of it was not much more than the mysterious and sort of surreal impressions I would gather from watching countless episodes of Law and Order Special Victims Unit, movies with a couple of scenes taking place in it or seeing fashion ads with its pictures. And although all that fantasy still amuses me I feel absolutely no connection between such images and the real Central Park, my real image of it. There is so much more sense of depth, smell and touch to it.

Central Park extends itself beyond the Ramble, the bridges or the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir. There are smells in the air (mostly good and exhaling from the myriad of trees and bushes around). There are squirrels galore and marvelous insects. Over it hovers an atmosphere that shifts as one walks from forest-like shady areas to open grass fields, to promenades and cafes. In Central Park people walk their dogs, stroll around, play baseball, soccer, tennis, ice hockey. In pairs, families, with friends or on their own, they stop for brunch, they go to the theater, they sit quietly on a bench or chat rowdy on a swing. They are stereotypical New Yorkers, business persons crossing the park drives by foot hastily and phoning, they ride a bike or a skate at high speed. Others are just passers by from all corners of the world. They close their eyes while lying on the grass on a warm evening, and listen, for free, to the music emanating from the SummerStage. 


In Central Park people run. All running fanatics in Manhattan (dare I say New York City) end up running, at some point, the small and large loop of the Park, the loop around the Jackie-O reservoir, up the "Cat Hill" and past the Boat House on the East, down the Strawberry Fields on the West. Whatever paths they might find interesting. I am no exception to this. And with my friend L., running buddy, inspiration and coach all-in-one, this touristic attraction has ceased to be so for me. I really feel ever more compelled to call it my "shared second home" as I add an extra mile to my running shoes.

Another friend, J., joins for a Saturday morning run and
sneaks a shot on the way down the West side 

#6 - Selfless selfish NYC

Right now on BBC World, live from Manhattan:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00trs0d

A constant contrast. Assertive yet smiling. Pushy yet generous. Emotional yet thoughtful.

#5 - New York pets II

Other sort of the City's beloved pets include:

- mosquitoes, they say everywhere, on the radio, magazines and newspapers: be prepared, they are on their way!

- cockroaaaaches! I had the pleasure of "meeting" a couple at home... small sized luckily!phew! On the street, though, the other day leaving work and turning the corner there it goes speeding! A lovely juicy big "cucaracha" above the allowed speed limit crossing my way on the sidewalk... eeek!

- at high speed also a couple of mice have scooted away on my way to or out of the metro.

- which takes me to other rodents. Rats, the lords and ladies of the subway. They do not shy away as they exercise back and forth on the rails. And when I mean they don't shy away it's because they really think they own their joint! Underground, one of these days, I step out of the metro car and there it is: one fat rat (no no, no subliminal pun about Wall Street's wealthiest) right in the middle of the platform! And bloody hell the thing didn't move an inch as people poured out! Nonchalant, it just couldn't give a damn, it just stood there! Even the rats have got the nerve in this town!

Oh yeah... I think they name all the above plagues*, in fact.



*Before posting this I realized that actually this list is rather incomplete... Further, there are the pigeons, raccoons, chipmunks/squirrels, seagulls, starlings... The question is: were they in the city before us or did they come as we urbanized? I wonder what/who started the "plague".

#3 - Seamen

They circumambulate the city and he fills my mind with reveries of sails and the high Sea.

by Herman Melville, in Moby Dick

#2 - New York pets

Dogs, dogs! An endless number of pooches and hounds get walked everyday by their owners in the island of Manhattan and surely in other boroughs. I have seriously never seen so many elegant Afghan hounds, happy labs, jumpy terriers, fluffy golden retrievers, tough bulldogs, minuscule chihuahuas and prepped poodles in my life! And the worse of this is that I am starting to go insane with such dogged sweetness around! I fear one of these days I might end up on the brink of just crazily hugging one of those dogs without any respect whatsoever!* Of course together with these four-legged, tail-wagging buddies there are doggy gyms, doggy salons and hairstylists, Petco, Unleashed, Furry Paws... places from where all sort of canine paraphernalia comes from: in Winter dogs wear jackets, capes, shoes, socks, sometimes they have on more layers than I do! I am expecting some sunglasses as the Sun starts to be blinding bright this Summer.

*For the record, I really like dogs but I am actually more of a cat lover, but, unlike in the Netherlands, New Amsterdam people don't seem to have a cat on every window... might also be that I see them less as most buildings are not small grachtenhuisjes/ grachtenpanden and ground floor windows are not just there next to the sidewalk with curtains wide open.