You Can Take The Girls Out Of Gero...: The Village People

With Soho and the East Village done and dusted, it was time to check out he Meatpacking District and the other villages - Greenwich and the West.

Before we left we checked the weather forecast and whilst our loved ones were sweltering in scorching temps up in the 40℃'s we were going to enjoy a 1℃ day, complete with snow and rain - so the streets were really slushy and slippery.

Our first port of call was to the Chelsea Market. The old building the markets are in used to be the National Biscuit Factory. There is an assortment of bakeries, seafood, Italian supermarket wears, card and book shops as well as gifty knickknacks shops and small eatery stands.

You can't quite see how slippery the footpaths (or sidewalks) are in this photo, but we were had a few near miss slips here and there and ended up walking very slowly and quite gingerly, taking high lifting small steps like we were cartoon characters sneaking up on somebody - if you can imagine that.

The High Line is a public park built on a historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan's West Side. It is owned by the City of New York, and maintained and operated by Friends of the High Line. It was founded in 1999 by residents in the community who wanted to preserve it at a time when it was under treat of demolition. The High Line runs from West 30th Street all the way down to Gansevoort Street which is below West 13th Street - so about 19 New York blocks. They've done such an amazing job with it. If you ever come to New York, this is a must see. I have written about it in previous blogs, but the pictures that would have accompanied that write up would have been taken in summer. This time it looked and felt very different.

That's snow and ice on the boards there which made it very slippery. We only walked along (solo, I might add - Nobody else was silly enough to go up there!) to the next exit and climbed down to street level.

Greenwich and the West Village are very different to navigate around to the rest of New York. They are off the grid, so to speak. The streets go in a jumble of directions rather than just N, S, E and W, but we wound our way around and found ourselves at the famous Magnolia Bakery - made famous by Carrie in Sex and the City. The last time I was here there was a line out the door and around the corner, but this time, perhaps due to the non cupcakey weather? It was empty - so in we went to sample their wares.

The little tiny shop is just gorgeous, all decked out with old fashioned bits and bobs.

I, naturally, chose a Red Velvet - purely for quality control you understand.... and I have to say in comparison to the Reds at George Town Cupcakes, I have to say that George Town was the hands down winner. Both times!

These south Manhattan boroughs also feel a little different to your Midtowns or your Lower East Sides. They have a more quiet, slower pace to them and there are more brownstone walk ups with stoops, so you know it's an area where people actually live. There are trees and sometimes little gardens. It just has a nice feel to it.

Just a mosaic on a wall in Greenwich - not your normal graffiti, but I'd prefer it to tagging any day.

Common mode of transportation - even in the freezing. I guess that's just how they roll.....

see what I did there?

If I was going to live in New York - this would be the area that I'd choose, not because of all the reasons I've just mentioned, but because it is also where they made the film - Can't Stop The Music - with The Village People back in 1980.

By the time the movie was released, disco had waned and the movie won the Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay prizes at the 1980 Golden Raspberry Awards in March 1981 and was nominated in almost all the other categories. Despite that, the song "Can't Stop the Music" became a Club Play chart hit and moderate radio hit. However, it too (Can't Stop the Music, the song) was nominated for Worst Original Song by the 1981 Razzies, and did not live up to expectations, never obtaining gold status as a single or album.

(Thanks Wikipedia)

I don't care though..... it wouldn't be the first time I've loved a movie that nobody else 'gets'

Anne of Green Gables