New York à la Keiko: nykeiko plays: A week in pics...

Here are some pictures from my iPhone and stuff I already shared on my instagram.

As we walked around Harlem and Williamsburg last weekend and Dave blurted out "I love this city" out of nowhere, I couldn't help but feel the same way about New York. We love this city. This city is truly great and for Dave (born and bred in the city) to keep feeling the same way about his city after so long makes me truly happy that I've decided to make it my home as well.

Last week was a busy one for me. Covering the Alexander Wang for H&M launch, three Vixen Workout classes in a week (one with no other than founder Janet Jones) and deciding to see Alex Winston play at a popup shop in Soho, I made no excuse to stay home (I'm kind of lazy sometimes).

I also started walking to work or should I say, walking towards work while waiting for the bus to pass but is always late so I end up walking to work anyway. Never having walked to work before, I discover beautiful buildings and different facades of Harlem. Now that my jet lag is totally gone, I don't know if I'll be waking up early enough to do this more often (takes about 45 minutes to walk to work) but I'm glad to know that it's totally do-able to walk 40 blocks and loving every moment (Well, the crispy Autumn air helps a lot. Not sure about loving winter freezer weather or sweltering hot summer days...)

Beautiful church on a cloudy morning

Central Park in the morning

Happy hour with Janet Jones for Vixen workout! Sweat sesh...

Last week, Alex Winston announced on her Facebook page that she would be performing a Secret Music Session set at the Boohoo pop up store in Soho. Well, we went of course. Free drinks, free nibs and a free music show. It would be silly for us not to go.

Tried healthy comfort food at Siggys before the show. The house-made hummus was pretty good and the eggplant veggie and tofu lasagna (no noodles) was super harty and satisfying. I was iffy about a meatless lasagna but this one was totally acceptable.

On Saturday, Dave and I decided to stretch our legs and go for a walk around Hamilton Heights and check out coffee shops and restaurants we have been meaning to try. After picking up a strong cappuccino from Manhattanville coffee, we had brunch at The Grange bar and eatary. I noticed both restaurant's sign on the window were gold gilded by Sandra Spannan of See. Painting, Inc. whom I purchased an art piece (see here) from at Sugar Hill Market a while back. Loving that she's getting so much support locally. Her signs look great.

After brunch, we strolled north of Harlem all the way above 150th street. Here, we stumbled onto a stoop sale and met some friendly residents. We then noticed a lovely park from afar which turned out to be a cemetery. It was the Trinity Church cemetery and Mausoleum. Here, it is where Alfred Tennyson Dickens (Charles Dicken's son), John Jacob Astor and Edward Koch rests in peace. I didn't think there was enough real estate on Manhattan for a large cemetery with beautiful mausoleums like this . It reminded me a little bit of La Recoleta cemetery in Buenos Aires (where Eva Peron and many Argentinian presidents are buried) but in a much smaller scale. The fall foliage was a nice backdrop and we strolled around and not thinking too much about stepping over dead bodies.

We walk all the way back home but not before picking up some grocery for dinner.

On Sunday, we had lunch at Dave's parents in East Williamsburg. Our plan was to visit The Meat Hook shop and finally spend my cousin's generous wedding gift. We are looking to purchase a stock pot so Dave can make soup to his heart's content but they didn't have any so we marked down to potential future purchases. A small toaster and a slow cooker, which we didn't want to carry back home with us that day with us.

Strolling around, we spotted a fat-looking bird beside a garbage dump area. That bird was a Pectoral Sandpiper and I totally know the name of this bird because I Googled "bird with long beak" and tried to find a match. It was either between a "Great Snipe" or the "Pectoral Sandpiper". Since the one we found was chubsie, I concluded it was a Pectoral Sandpiper. I also concluded that he was dying since he is suppose to be flying to South America right this moment to warmer grounds. They are super long distant migrants (from Alaska to South America!) but after poking him with a stick (we thought maybe it was taxidermy), he was unresponsive and didn't care about my stick. Maybe he had wing cramps or stomach problems? Or maybe I should just stop speculating.

Seen inside The Meat Hook

Someone find him!

Great Snipe or Pectoral Sandpiper

We continued walking in our old neighborhood. We saw many of the shops we have come to know during our time on Graham street that moved or closed. Not surprisingly, we also spotted many construction sites making grounds for new commercial and residential buildings. The change in this area is exponential and we have only been gone for less than a year. I bet it's going to be totally unrecognizable in a couple more years.

We decided to pop into this bar called Reclamation Bar which we did not have the chance to check out when it opened almost a year ago. It was just a 3-minutes walk from our old apartment. We got there just in time for Happy Hour. I had one $5 Mason jar cocktail while Dave took advantage of HH and had three drinks in total. I really liked the 'Can I Kick It' drink which probably has everything I like in a drink in one and Dave's 'Seasonal jar'. The whip cream made the drink. It was a lot of fun drinking at a bar with the husband where flirting is totally allowed. I also noted that I didn't puke and taking off 'drinking' on my fear list once again.

After that, we popped in a shop called Small Home which opened late last year and I bought a narwhal plush toy by Kate Durkin. I've seen this narwhal many times before at Brooklyn flea but at $28, I never took the plunge; however, with alcohol in my blood, I bought it. I even said something silly like ..for our future baby!