It’s the last week of the free musical swings installation in Battery Park City’s Brookfield Place – if you haven’t had a go yet, rush over quick.
Between Brookfield Place and the North Cove Yacht Harbor is a really great art installation of giant swings, that play harmonising musical notes when you swing on them. It’s a lot of fun going in a group and trying to listen out for each other’s note and try to work out which musical instrument each swing sounds like.
I also adored the fact that the swings are seriously big, so fully grown men can swing with abandon without having to pick up their feet. The ropes were so long, you can reach a really decent height. Found myself whooping and screaming like my nine year old self. The temptation to launch off was obviously not just me – there are signs everywhere warning you not to jump off.
I’d say the swings are perfect for kids big enough to balance by themselves, so about three or four years old depending. The seats are quite broad, so any really small children would probably struggle to stay on and enjoy themselves.
There can be a bit of a delay getting in as Arts Brookfield requires an (excessively thorough) disclaimer before you can get your hand stamped and go in, which isn’t helped by patchy WiFi.
We’ve been several times over the past few weeks, and it hasn’t lost its appeal. It finishes on Thursday 7th July. Did I mention it was free?
This week’s Highs & Lows:
Highs:
- We’ve had a couple of day trips beyond Manhattan this past fortnight, with invitations to friends’ houses in Queens and Greenwich CT. I’ve always wanted to catch a train from Grand Central Station, and Greenwich CT provided a great excuse. It has to be one of the most beautiful and recognisable train stations in the world
- T’s had a fortnight off school so far (school closes from mid-June to mid-September here), and we’ve had a lot of fun pottering about, visiting various museums, playgrounds and generally hanging out with the baby. It’s hard for B as her daycare doesn’t follow academic calendar, but she knows she’ll get summers off when she’s at ‘big girl’s school’ too
- Rediscovering high-strength caffeine. I cut back on caffeine dramatically with J’s pregnancy and have been thoroughly enjoying readdicting myself to it again. After a 5.30am start today, energy levels were flagging when I was faced with cooking the sunday roast (not a weekly occurrence, hasten to add, but we felt like one today). I made myself a seriously strong cup of tea and put on The Archers Omnibus podcast, happy as Larry. Oh how I love tea.
Lows:
- The girls have been playing a game running a restaurant called China Star. Today they wrote out a shopping list and went to the local shop with C to buy the ingredients. After half an hour of careful work in the kitchen with C, I was asked to come into China Star and try the soup of the day. Ingredients included radish, garlic, mint, cumin, coriander, orange juice, lime juice and peppercorns. Under their eager gaze, as C laughed from the kitchen, I managed two whole spoonfuls, eyes watering, before they were satisfied. The things parents have to do for their children
- Tasting root beer for the first time. Have always been curious about it as it’s so often on American TV shows, so I thought I’d give it a try. I asked a friend what it tasted like and the best they could manage was “Well, it’s a bit like winter greens.” I decided not to let that put me off so had a sip, and nearly choked. It’s basically thin, fizzy cough mixture
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