Too hot to handle

It’s hot here. I mean really hot. I mean clammy, disgusting, frizzy-hair kind of hot. And we are only part way through June. Now I know our nearest and dearest back in Britain will be sitting in their deckchairs and dabbing their foreheads with their knotted hankies and scoffing, because the iPhone says their temperature is bigger than ours, but at least they are safe in the knowledge that, being Britain, it will all be just a distant memory by this time next week. Whereas we have several months still to perspire through.

I shouldn’t complain. I love the feeling of the sun on my skin, and there is no doubt it is a real mood lifter. But there are days here when a minute after getting out of the shower in the morning you just want to jump right back in. Yet you still need to cart a cardi around with you because on the subway platform it might be sweltering but the train carriages are air conned enough to give an Eskimo goosebumps. As are many of the restaurants – don’t trendy chefs realise it’s hard to eat when your teeth are chattering? I console myself with the thought of all the calories I am sweating out and burning up as I put on my cardi, then take it off, then put it on …

And don’t even get me started on the smells. As any visitor to NYC knows, this is not a city for the faint of stomach. Festering trash cans, discarded hamburgers, days-old urine – all this is roasted and amplified as the sun shines remorselessly down on us. It becomes a challenge to get from one place to another without breathing in too deeply.

But the best part of this time of year has got to be the sights you see as you wander along at a snail’s pace because, frankly, you can’t go any faster. Today I have encountered: 1. A rear view – and not a pleasant one – of a construction worker (not one of the working-out-in-the-gym types, it was abundantly clear) who decided to bend from the waist just as I walked past; 2. A man who looked to be of Native American descent, with long black braids (a sensible ’do in this heat, to be fair) who was waddling along, without a care in the world, and almost without a stitch either – just skimpy Speedos and a pair of flippers on his feet; 3. A clutch of ladies who had obviously over-indulged all winter long but really didn’t seem to care that last summer’s get-ups were several sizes too small this year.

Best of all, though, was in the park where I stopped to avail myself of some water and a little shade. Collapsed on a bench after the effort of traipsing two blocks, I was rewarded by the sudden springing to life of the water sprinklers on the grass – just where people had spread themselves out to indulge in a little sun worship. I haven’t seen anyone move that fast in days. 

Inspiration struck today at ... Sweet Corner, Hudson Street

If there was an award for service with a smile, this place would win hands down. What a difference it makes to be greeted so delightfully.

Pros: Cute little bakeshop, delicious drinks, mouth-watering bites, seats for people-watching both inside and out.

Cons: Can’t think of any!