"We've got to stop meeting like this"

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...I said to the young man who laid beside me on the floor in the foyer of the Guggenheim Museum. We both laughed. Yes, you heard right!

Until 25 September there is a James Turrell exhibition featured at the Guggenheim in which the artist "pursues a state of reflective vision that he calls 'seeing yourself seeing', in which we become aware of the function of our own senses and of light as a tangible substance." And the 'piece de resistance' has to be seen from the floor of the foyer where a circular mat has been placed to enable you to lay on your back and look up to experience a series of interconnected rings lined with LED (light-emitting diode) fixtures which form five concentric ellipses that echo the banded pattern of the museum's helical architecture. Radiating waves of vibrant colour, and experienced from below, the rotunda appears not as an open void but as an ever-shifting mass of light that expands and contracts above your head. So seen from a position of lying down and looking up is the way to experience it; such a fantastic thing to do. Take it from one who knows!! While I was lying down looking up (and it was very hard to leave) Kev was talking to one of the Guggenheim staff who told him that one man stayed there all day! Having experienced it myself I can understand how he must have enjoyed that although all day might be taking it a bit too far!!

Kev & I went to the Guggenheim on our own after visiting Grace Mansion with Kerrii & Rupert. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

First off we looked after Rupert while Kerrii & Grace went to Randall Island for another horse riding day for Grace. THEN the four of us - Kerrii, Rupert, Kev & I - went to Gracie Mansion in Carl Schurz Park. The official residence of the Mayor of NYC, it is located at East End Ave and 88th on the shore of the East River overlooking the channel known at Hell Gate. Gracie Mansion was built in 1799 by Archibald Gracie and became the official mayoral residence in 1942. The first mayor to live there being Fiorello H La Guardia after whom one of the NYC airports is named. While Mayor Bloomberg doesn't live there it is used most days for mayoral activities and with a mayoral election due later this year it is not known if you'll be able to visit the place in the future. So we were very lucky although we weren't allowed to take photos inside the house. Take it from me though, it was well worth a visit.

After our visit to the Guggenheim Kev stayed home with Rupert, while Grace - back from her horse-riding adventure - joined Kerrii, myself and her friend Shiley to visit Thomas Jefferson Park, on E112th and First Ave. There we spent some time in the free Olympic size pool. Well, I mostly dabbled my feet in the water and, since Kerrii came out of the pool after five minutes, I saw no reason to get completely wet. So Kerrii & I went off for a chat while Grace & Shiley did the swimming!

Finally we ate a scrumptious dinner at Kerrii & Seb's apartment...all in all, a great day!

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