R = Restoration

Bette Midler, a personal fave ever since Outrageous Fortune, is the Founder of the New York Restoration Project. In 1995 she set about organising and funding the first volunteer clean-ups in dirty derelict parks in the City with the hope of creating a greener, cleaner New York.

Today NYRP has 55 community gardens and four sponsored city parks under its belt. One especially appealing to me is Fort Tryon Park as it features the little gem New Leaf Cafe.

So, on a gorgeous New York Sunday we boarded the A train up to 190th Street, the park boarders Washinghton Heights and Inwood and is literally in front of you as you come out of the subway.

The park itself is gorgeous, full of azaleas, peonies, forget-me-nots, pansies and lots more that I can't remember the names of. Living in New York a garden of my own is a distant memory. The views are fantastic from the viewing platform at the top, you can see up and down the Hudson River on one side, twinkling in the sunlight, then all across the City on the other.

The New Leaf Cafe is nestled in the middle of the park, a gorgeous little old 1930s stone building with a fantastic terrace literally hiding in an area of trees and bushes out the back. The tables sit not too close together (a personal peeve) under white umbrellas with white matching tablecloths, perfectly simple in the natural setting. We went for brunch and if you're prepared to wait approx 1 hour for a table it's well worth it. You can always do what we did and wait at the bar sipping perfectly chilled pink bubbly while you wait, not so hard. The brunch is fantastic, Simon's duck rosti with poached egg and hickory smoked bacon was ridiculously good.

You feel like you're a milion miles away from New York City, as if you've taken a day trip upstate but smugly managed to escape the traffic somehow. In my opinion a perfect way to while away a Sunday in the sunshine.

Thank-you Bette, you are the wind beneath our wings.

Q = Queens

Just like Eddie Murphy in Coming to America, we were going to Queens to find our Queen. Well the Queen in our 26 Weeks deck of cards let's say, we've had so many Aces so it was time for a Queen.

I had a good feeling about this week's task. The day was stunning, lovely and hot and not a cloud in the sky. First stop Central Park for a little sunbathe and picnic then we jumped on the C line up to Astoria. We got out and had a good wander around, it was like being on the set of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, absolutely brilliant.

We popped into one of a lot of shops selling intricate dresses for little 'uns for their christening, veils for brides, amazingly detailed and big corsages. Three old greek women were working in the shop handmaking everything for sale, they weren't best pleased to have a couple tourists looking around but it was worth the disapproving looks.

We then discovered the Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden, a former Czech and Slovak social club and still a popular spot for Astoria's Czech and Slovak community. The huge beer garden was packed, actually full of a lot of pretty drunk students, all looking 18 or 19 years old, it brought back wistful memories of being that age, blowing off the student loan, fun times. The garden is great, line after line of tables full with big pitchers of beer, the perimeter is surrounded by huge old trees making it feel less parking lot and more real good old fashioned beer garden, they even do waitress service at your
table after 5pm, a nice little touch especially as the bar by that time was 10 people deep.


After a few merrymaking drinks in the fading sun of the day we walked up to Ditmar Boulevard, Greek restaurant central. We picked the one with the best Awards and the most Authentic menu, Taverna Kyclades (big thanks to Si for the research on this one). Happily we found it packed with the local Greek community waiting patiently for tables, a good sign indeed. We went for the Greek salad, a sharing plate of skordalia, tzatziki and incredibly fishy taramosalata, followed by whole sea bass and lamb chops. So much food and so good, washed down with a bottle of greek plonk, actually pretty tasty. The atmos was great, loud, full of families, everyone living it up on a Saturday night, a great experience.




We pootled home and polished off the night watching the Mayweather Mosley fight on the PPV, sadly Mosley lost, but today we won. Queens rules.

P = Poetry

On a Tuesday night we ventured to the Bowery Poetry Cafe for Urbana, the weekly poetry slam.

While I appreciate poetry and have been known to add a little ditty into a birthday card here or there, I'm not an active poetry lover so this was a little night out from the norm for me.

We arrived to a packed out room, found the bar, grabbed a bevvie and squeezed into a spot. I had no idea what was about to greet me and wow was I greeted.

What ensued was an amazing line-up of ridiculously impressive, highly entertaining poets battling it out on stage. Sort of a cross between 8 Mile and The Moth.

It was frenetic, a bit crazy at times, funny, sad, shocking and we loved it. One lady talked about her self loathing in such a moving way I welled up a little, another lady was angry, shouting and rhyming about everything she's got it in for in an incredibly funny way. One guy was so fast and melodic telling his political woes, it was almost like he was rapping.

Hugely talented poets just up there doing there thing, no fear, just putting it out there. It was a sight to see.

Urbana has won the national poetry slam award many a time and I can see why, definitely worth checking out if you find yourself free on a Tuesday night. It's only $7 entry so you'll have plenty of pennies left to grab a bevvie at The Bowery Hotel or Madame Geneva next door, two of my all time faves.