wanderer returns

after a bit of a quiet period blog-wise, i'm back! life itself wasn't so quiet though; over the past three weeks i've either been getting some last minute things tied up, or been in another country! i got back yesterday from a short trip with my sister to toronto & new york city, & it already doesn't even feel like i've been away.

we had a great trip though. in toronto we spent a lot of the time exploring (mostly ending up either in kensington market or the west side of town), visiting lots of vintage & boutique stores, plus we met up with my friend ian & saw an inuit art exhibition & an ace jazz band, the happy pals, before i joined him & his friends for a party. my sister wasn't well some of the week which was a shame, & it was sometimes hard to find good places to eat (though when you found somewhere good it was really good), & the weather could have been better (but i got to wear a nice new hat which was a plus), but toronto's a good city if you know what you're looking for & what's going on - NOW is a great local paper to find out what going on. thanks to everyone who recommended places, plus a special thanks to anabela/fieldguided (& to geoff for telling me about it) for her amazing in-depth review of her toronto. i visited a lot of places she listed, & would have gone to more if i'd had enough time!

next stop was new york city, & it was nice to be somewhere a bit more familiar, if only slightly. the weather was awful when we got there, we had to write off our first evening of walking around thanks to the rain, but by the end of the week it was 25˚c & sunny so who am i to complain? we visited central park & the natural history museum, did shopping in uniqlo, anthropologie (four pairs of tights for $25 instead of $92!) & beacon's closet in williamsburg, brooklyn, which i definitely wish existed closer to home. visited a few flea markets, & while we didn't do much of the art gallery scene this time around, we went to MoMA on the free evening (not sure i'd recommend this, it was mobbed) & giant robot, where i met up with the lovely sara of brown paper bag. did a lot of walking, a lot of eating & a bit of people watching whilst sitting in parks in the sun. oh, how i miss the sun.

back to reality now though; i return to work tomorrow & my to-do list has doubled from what it was before i left. it's nice to have gotten away though. will need to start planning my next trip.