Day 14 – Central Park, a friend and a restaurant

Practicing dance in Central Park

It was our last full day in New York so decided that more cycling was good.  Today’s exercise was to be Central Park.  We found a recommended rental place (don’t believe everything on the internet) that proved to be anything but a good place from which to rent.  The bikes were cheap but the service non-existent.  None of the staff seemed at all happy.  Despite the crappy bike Central Park was a joy to bike around.  It was in its spring colours with the trees all mostly in leaf, there were blossom and lots of flowers.  During our ride we came across a group hustling for money by doing some acrobatics of some sort.  In fact there was more talk than action during the fifteen minutes we were there. 

Peace in a very busy city

Jazz in the park

In another part of the park we stopped to hear some superb jazz before taking our bikes back to the shop.  One of the delightful things was watching this man and woman dancing to the music and when they finished it was clear neither knew each other, just a random encounter.  They were superb dancers!!
 

Northern part of the park near an ice skating rink

The afternoon was spent looking at shops and then we went back to our AirBnB to change into some nicer clothes as we were meeting an old acquaintance from Wellington.  We met an acquaintance Lynda, who I knew when she worked as a recruiter at Wheeler Campbell, at a place called the Strand Hotel which had a rooftop bar; unfortunately there was a private party there so we could not have not a drink unless we crashed it.  

Instead we went to another rooftop bar in Bryant Park.  
   
Lynda went to New York after she got a Green Card.  She arrived with no job but through networks has secured a job and feels very at home in New York.  She is a recruiter and works for a recruitment firm and unusually, for America, does both client and candidate work. Normally they specialise in one or the other  She said it is a very brutal environment where people are eliminated (not made redundant), where you could go into work and find that you do not have a job that day. No notice periods.  That means people tend to be risk averse and fearful of their boss.  Lynda sees herself as having had a dream run so far.  This she puts down to arriving there and being very naïve.  However, she is a superb networker, has really good judgement and will work to the get best deal for both client and candidate.  She has an apartment in Madison Avenue the rental of which compared very favourably to Wellington.  She said that she was taxed about as much as she was in New Zealand but the total tax take is made up of lots of different taxes. 

After our drink Lynda left us to go home and suggested that we ought to look for a restaurant in 9^th Avenue which is very close to the Port Authority and our bus.  There were a lot of different restaurants but I spied Trattoria Casa di Isacco.  It turned out to be an inspired choice.  It was small and intimate and somewhat eccentrically decorated with Elvis clearly an inspiration, even the host’s hair was in a similar style.  He had a broad Italian accent which made him a bit difficult to understand, but regardless he knew how to establish excellent rapport.   The food was excellent.  We shared some of the best cooked calamari I have had; then for a main I had the special, veal rack, and Bev had a veal parmagiana both of which were cooked superbly.  He even praised us for our selections and then afterwards praised the chef's cooking.  We continued to nod furiously in agreement.   Even the presentation was good.  We ended our meal with a Tiramisu.  We had ordered a couple of wines to drink with dinner but half way through he came by and filled our glasses.  Then did it a second time and perhaps a third, by that time I had stopped counting.   I have to say that I was a little merry by the time I finished off my wine.  I suppose it was compensation for the price shock I got with my special, i.e. the veal rack.  

The experience at the Trattoria rounded off our New York experience wonderfully.