Danke schoen, darling, danke schoen
Save those lies, darling don’t explain
I recall Central Park in fall
How you tore your dress, what a mess, I confess
That’s not all
Wayne Newton (and Ferris Bueller)
Saturday 30/8/14 9.30pm. Just got home exhausted from working off some calories around Central Park for most of the day. Problem is, we got back to Brooklyn and went to a family style restaurant called Applebys and ruined all the good work. My old mate The Senator warned me big time about the food but it’s so goddam tasty and accessible!
We went and hired bikes today and went around Central Park twice as well as stopping to discover some of the myriad of nooks and crannies this incredible park contains. It’s approx. 9km around the park and very easy. There is also plenty of room to ride thankfully, because today being a Saturday and 26 degrees, there were thousands out and about.
So much to look at in the park. There was a softball tournament, beach volley ballers, roller bladers, horses and carts, rickshaws, musicians, magicians, hip hop dancers and lots of little manicured dogs attached to the rich of the upper east and west sides. People sunbaking, sleeping ,reading, frisbeeing you name it. This is the only back yard these people have so they make the most of it. There is also an aquatic centre which turns into that beautiful ice rink in winter used in so many movies.
The Jaqueline Onassis Reservoir has the best photo opportunities and contains an awesome running track around it similar to the Tan Track. It goes for about 3-4 km around. The site of the reservoir has been used in plenty of movies including yet again, Hannah and Her Sisters. Central Park is a truly magical place.
We’ve been giving the homeless some money since we’ve been here and that’s our prerogative. We do the same in Melbourne and we are under no illusion that we aren’t going to change that person’s world however it might help in the short term. People have told me that I shouldn’t because they will only buy drugs and alcohol. I say good, because when you have absolutely nothing like these poor souls, good luck if they can get a moment’s joy, whatever form that takes. We don’t know what has happened in these people’s lives and therefore we never judge.
This morning on the subway we saw arguably the worst case of a homeless man we have ever seen. He looked like he had dragged himself from between the railway tracks, waited for a train to go over him, then got up. He had a hoody on, some ¾ pants and thongs. He was caked in soot from the subway and his toenails must have been a cm long. He was only young, perhaps mid 20’s and it really affected us that he could have got this far. He was carrying 4 big plastic bags, all full of more rubbish and he had tied other bits of rubbish to his hoody that were significant only to him. The commuters were getting on and taking a wide berth and I couldn’t help myself and walked over with some money for him. He was pretty oblivious to me so I touched his arm and he reared back scared. I offered him the money but he didn’t want it. I tried again but he simply refused without being upset. You just hope and pray he’s gonna be ok.
From the sublime to the ridiculous. We were walking the bikes back to the fantastic bike hire joint and bumped into a bloke from Melbourne called Todd. He spends 6 months of the year in NY working as an IT troubleshooter. We were chatting on the street in the very expensive upper east side when lo and behold who should turn up but the resident psychopath. Well dressed in white with a white towel around his neck like a boxing trainer, this little Hispanic man appeared from nowhere and started screeching words to the effect of, “Your f….. mother is a mother f…. whore and I’m going to f…… rape her and then I’m going to f…… kill her!!!” Todd had his back to him and his NY experience was clear to see as he didn’t miss a beat as chatting to us. Having said that I had one eye on him as he got closer. The fact we didn’t pay him any attention worked because he moved to another street where we saw him 30 mins later doing the same thing.
It’s always nice to get home to Brooklyn. We got out of the subway tonight and there is a giant Jamaican block party going on. We are literally the only white people there but we never felt safer. The people here are chilled and always up for a chat. Funny story. We always walk up Norstran Ave to go home and you always see a lot of the same shop keepers etc hanging around who always smile and say hello. There is a small clothing shop that also sells pirate videos and kung fu videos and the owner is a really docile huge black guy. We thought we would go in and see what he had in the shop but the only thing I ended up buying was a 3 pack of socks for $3. Bargain. Next day, put them on and without a lie I got 200m from home and my feet were on fire! Whatever fibres they were made from were rubbing together and burning the soles of my feet and I am now about to spontaneously combust! I could have lit a cigarette with my feet! We were laughing about it when we went past the clothing shop again and the the big fella says, “How are the socks?” “Great thanks, never been better!”
