WHAT WE DID (2)

IT has stopped raining -- I suppose that's the best thing that could have happened to Piering and Bernard's visit. They walked across the Brooklyn Bridge this morning; I went with them and then came home to work. I think they then walked around Downtown to see the World Trade Centre site and St Paul's Chapel (where George Washington once had a pew), buggered about Chelsea and had dim sum in Chinatown. Right now they're seeing Aïda at the Metropolitan Opera, and they may have had oysters at Grand Central Station before that. One recounts these things so that Christina and Oscar know what their parents are up to.

On the corner of our street, a flutist and violinist are giving a street concert. They're reading their score by bicycle lights. We really need a speleologist around.

WHAT WE DID

PIERING and Bernard are here, and we had a great day. Especially for Bea's benefit, I announced just now on Facebook that Piering had fallen off her chair -- helplessly so -- in the Henry Public. The rather green waiter did not know whether he should help her up or roll around on the floor screaming with laughter with me and Bernard.

We saw the Vermeer exhibition at the Met and the very special Georgia O'Keeffe abstracts at the Whitney, and then walked through Central Park just after the rain stopped and the yellow leaves really burned in the late-afternoon light. We stopped at home briefly, and then went to Douglas Rogers's reading at the Book Court. Here are some pics of the day...

In the Greek and Roman sculpture gallery at the Metropolitan Museum

Central Park...

The Whitney's foyer

RAWTHER FUN, BUT AT THE WALDORF

WE have a friend, Johnny Orford, who lives on the tippy-top floor of the... OK, it's not the Plaza -- he's spending two nights at the Waldorf, and we went to have drinks with him and his cousin, James Orford. Nice boys.

CATSKILLS WEEKEND

WE spent the weekend on a farm in the Catskills, eating and walking when it didn't rain. The trees are in full fall foliage. Monika watched many films for a festival she's programming, and David spent a lot of time with his hand on her stomach in the hope that his son would kick. On the way home, we had lunch in Woodstock. Tomorrow evening, Piering and Bernard arrive.