The Western Flyer

These people are so nice.

As all my stuff is currently enjoying the hospitality of New York Port Authority, possibly for another 8 weeks and $3000 charge for the pleasure, I am camping in my lovely yellow house by the sea. Within a whisper of the realis(z)ation that I literally did not have a pot to my name, my lovely neighbo(u)rs M'n'G arrived with an airbed & duvets. We can see each others' front doors from our own. Later, when the extent of the delay became apparent, L and A, (from a massive 3 streets away) arrived on the back of Peter the Painter's trailer with more duvets & a proper mattress.

However, the thing I had been really looking forward to that I was most disappointed about, was the arrival of the Pashers, my beloved bicycle. I am trying to live in America without owning a car, have I mentioned that? No? Well, let's talk about that another time. So you can see how I was relying on the Pashers' arrival. It's a glorious Pashley Sonnet, and for a fantastic blog entirely devoted to the joys of Pashley riding, see http://tillieandcoco.blogspot.com

Anyway, as soon as I had muttered about this, M offered me "some old bike in the basement I got from the old geezer over the road but can't ride as the seat's too high". As I'm about a foot taller than M, this filled me with anticipation. But never in a million years did I think I'd be picking up this beyoooooteeee when I strolled over in 30 seconds from my front door. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Western Flyer:

Can I draw your attention to the two tone leather seat? So comfortable.

I took it into the local cycle shop where the lycra boyz exclaimed in joy, had a little scoot round on it & then raised the seat for me. I then realis(z)ed it had a flat tyre. Not to worry, the lovely D at work who cycles in 10 miles everyday & used to be a very famous TV presenter in America (still gets stopped for autographs) took a little detour across the common to come to the yellow house with his bicycle pump. Sounds a bit Carry On I know but luckily that particular strand of British humour doesn't seem to have permeated yank culture the way that the pythons have.

But the upshot now is that I am much more mobile! More about life without a car in the gas guzzling States later, probably when I attempt to explain soliciting mackerel from Randy The Fish Guy.

Shop windows

So, I have been noticing how difficult it is for the limey to understand, just by peering into a shop window, what an establishment has available for purchase. Here are some favo(u)rite examples:

This is actually a great shop that sells things to eat. However, the following two shops are still a mystery to me, and I haven't yet crossed their thresholds to find out more.

This last one above is one of my most perplexing so far. Just in case it's not obvious, here's a close up.

Yes, it is a canoe containing a male dummy who appears to have recently died of a heart attack.

Anyway, that's not to say there aren't things of beauty in New England. My fantastically welcoming friends S and G greeted me with open arms when I arrived a day early on Saturday last weekend. Now, I know I'm a dedicated heathen but even for a committed atheist, arriving during Easter weekend on the one non-Easter-related day, in order to engage with Easter-type activities, was an achievement. Luckily, plenty of Easter art was to be had, with old-skool egg blowing and painting. And then, after all the smallies had retired, the Easter bunny laid the table in preparation for the hunt the following morning. And it was glorious.

Sadly, this limey heathen consumed too much red wine to get up in time for the egg hunt, so I managed to miss that too. But I had a great Easter, thanks S and G!

And finally, an update on the coffee situation. I don't think this needs further explanation: