Of smelling,tasting and shelving

NYC is noisy and smelly. Mostly it's the sooty traffic smell you get coming through, big blasts of it sometimes on the streets, and other times just a feeling of lack of fresh air generally. Certainly on the bike, my glands swell up with the fumes and I feel the membranes in my nose sooting up - they speak to me: "Bruuuce - what are you doing?" It's a tricky one.
And the avenues, as in '5th' and 'Lexington' (still love the names), which go in long straight lines all the way from up to downtown, are sometimes 6 lanes and usually one way. This means you get a free for all river of vehicles teaming down, including beefy great trucks with horrendously loud engines. No surprise at the volume and smells.
So far I am mostly on my own! This is good because I hate shouting above traffic.
And then every now and then, I don't know if it's the heat, but unlike London also, you get a sudden waft of something organic and unpleasant, not exactly sewagey, but reminds me of some of the wafts I remember in Malawi as a child. Stinky!

There is no equivalent of Yeovalley plain yoghurt here.
Its hard to find bread as tasty as in London. Even the 'artisan' loaves in Wholefoods chain and in markets are just not as tasty and satisfying as loaves easy to find in London.
Coffee - also rare to find a delicious cup.

I had a tomaydoe/tomarto moment in beloved Wholefoods. I wanted 'butter'. The guy said 'pasta?'. 'No...butter'. 'Hmmm. I don't think we have thayat.' 'Oh I'm certain you do....butter!'
Rather than adopting a US accent I find myself pushed further into English, even though it makes me feel isolated and prim. This was after a lady said she was disappointed at the weakness of my accent! And also after one alpha guy called Ken spoke of his respect for grammar and clarity in the English.
Anyway to get butter, I did an inner shrug, captured the 'r' with lips opening out, softened the 'tt' do 'dd' and was shown where the budderr was.

Manhattan, mid-town atleast - where I am living/working, there is NOwhere to sit and eat a homemade sandwich. I stand on the corner feeling trapped in a desert of road-grid and office blocks! In London you don't have to go far to find a backstreet doorstep or an alley or pedestrianized bit to sit and have a quick lunch. But here there is often absolutely nowhere to perch. What a strange discovery.

Work lunch choices are humungus. There are so many places to go. So much choice. There's quite a few in London but it's not the same. There certainly aren't the hot/cold buffets which are very common in Manhattan. You can buy by weight: a fragment of baked salmon, some roasted vegetables, a chicken wing and some bacon beans with a teaspoon of melon salad if you want. And they are tasty and decent.
I seem to be fussy however and after most bought lunches, feel a bit lacklustre in the afternoon, in a way which I never do if I bring food from home. And so I'm forming a list of so far 3 places which make me feel energetic afterwards. Which is the same total as in London. One of them is a great Mexican chain called Chipotle - really fresh, really well designed - a good quick, full veggy meal for about £5. Pizza slice is another really good option. They do it so very well.

Had a funny 'have a nice day' moment yesterday. Store staff are good at varying it. Sometimes it's "enjoy your day/afternoon", or "have a good one", or "you take care now".
I was coming out of Home Depot - essentially a really good B&Q - which is round the corner from my office - an underground warehouse of DIY goodies. Sometimes a sweet old lady asks what you are after when you come in and then remembers what it was as you go past on the way out: "did you faand your shelves?" Which I had. I bought wood opting to make my own so that my apartment isn't too instant/consumery.
I've been to Home Depot many times in the past week and each time I get asked at least twice if I need help by a wondering employee. This is excellent as I nearly always do as it is so huge and my knowledge a bit limited. Bravo Home Depot.
Anyway on the visit in question I got to the exit about 0.5 seconds behind someone else. An assistant said "have a nice day" to them, not noticing me at first. And then the sincerity of it got somehow tested as I detected he didn't want to say it to me quite that quickly afterwards upon noticing me (you have to envisage it); the mechanicalness of it would have become too glaring. He could have said "and you too sir" but having not noticed me he was momentarily thrown. I grinned. I still had a nice day.