So I’ve been a bit lame at updating, but I’m b-b-b-ack, I swear. I had my sister visiting last week, so it’s been a bit of sightseeing, a lot of pampering and, to be honest, a great deal of drinking. Not big, or clever, I know… But here’s a little rundown of where I am and what I’ve been up to.
First up: The Ends…
I’m living in the Lower East Side, in the heart of Alphabet City. When I first visited NYC in 1990 (I was, ahem, a teenager), this area was crazy-dangerous. We were over to do some ‘drama and shit’ with the drama class at Seward Park High School. The idea was that we would do an exchange, but the New York kids never got over to Birmingham, unfortunately. Anyway, we stayed for a few days in some crummy hotel and then we were paired with American kids and their family’s. Me and my mate Kelly stayed with this guy Jeff in some projects on Grand St (I’m on a mission to try and find the exact one), while my mates Alison (of ‘Big Brother’ and ‘This Morning’ fame donchaknow) and Jacquie ( of ‘Emmerdale’ and ‘Corrie’ fame doncha double know) stayed, I think, on the next block to where I’m staying. They shat themselves the whole time – and not just because of their four-legged rodent flatmates. Back in the ‘90s, the area was awash with heroin addicts and drug dealers and wasn’t really a spot you wanted to stay in longer than about two minutes. They were well looked after though and ended up having a great time there.
And now, like the rest of the Western world, the area has been gentrified. There’s loads of lovely cafes and bars etc – although the local Puerto Rican influences are still really strong. I’ve been to a little PR café for breakfast (cos about 38p or something) and there’s loads of graffiti everywhere:
and the public gardens are decorated with weird South American looking paraphernalia like this:
No one has called me Mami yet. Most disappointing.
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