Apologies for the lack of posts over the last week. To make up for it, another of my rather irregular photo interlude series.

The super official looking sign we were greeted with at our local subway as services started to creak back into life after Sandy.

Strange little metal couple on a wall on Franklin Avenue in Bed Stuy.

Proportionately challenged Statue of Liberty replica in the carpark at the Brooklyn Museum.

Worm in a bottle of Mezcal. Taken by Mr after one of those unexpected drunken evenings, which are the best kind of drunken evenings, though ending with Mezcal wouldn't be my preference. Ick.

Epic Burger.

Damn straight.

Crap, random wall art(?).

Not crap, not random wall art.

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Mr and I went out for a spot of lunch earlier on and spied another downed tree, though this one decided destroying a car wasn't quite dramatic enough and so took out an entire house.

We also spotted this emoticon pumpkin.

What with it being Halloween, the streets were filled with small children clutching bags full of sweets, one exclaiming as he walked past me 'I love trick or treating!'. It seems that it's not only houses that get visited here, but shops too. As we picked up some coffee, a trail of children, none of whom were in costume or looking especially joyful, walked in, plastic bags aloft. Among the group was a fully grown women, also baring a bag full of sweets, 'I got kids' was her explanation to the slightly confused barista, who reluctantly dropped a couple of sweets in her bag. When they'd left she said that she didn't really understand trick or treating without costumes, I have to agree… It just kinda seems like authorised begging. There were a hella lot of adorable wee things who'd made an effort though. Princesses, vampires, dragons and superheroes were everywhere.

None quite matched up to this though. Best dress ever. GOBAMA!

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We survived! Turns out we'd cleverly chosen one of the safest places in the city to live during the hurricane, being in central Brooklyn has its perks when most of the threat is coming from the coast. We stayed cosied up in our apartment listening to the wind and rain, with only an occasional flickering of the lights to indicate that it was any more than a bad storm. Other parts of the city weren't so lucky, lower Manhattan blacked out and was widely flooded, we'd have been badly affected if we were still in our July digs. My beloved (ha) Williamsburg was also affected. I highly recommend a read of this if you want more insight into why I feel the way I do about the area and some of its inhabitants.

At about 11pm last night Mr declared that it didn't sound so bad outside and he couldn't really tell what all the fuss was about… Despite the fact that he hadn't been out all day and I'd had to take a long walk to feed Harrison the cat, leaving me looking like this –

To be fair to him, it was his birthday, the one day of the year when you're allowed to be lazy, no questions asked, so he's off the hook. I still like to be right though, so I took him outside for a bit and, annoyingly, it wasn't that bad at all. The eye of the storm had passed by then and our street wasn't showing much sign of damage. Determined to prove that a hurricane had indeed passed through, I headed out today to see what destruction I could find.

Initially I just came across lots of snapped off branches and leaves, many of which were already being cleared by diligent residents, as well as officials.

Then I started to find small trees that had lost their battle with the wind.

Sometimes two at a time.

As I turned the corner onto Macdonough Street it became apparent that it wasn't only little trees that had lost their battle.

Oh shiz.

Oh SHIZ.

Shiz got really real for this poor little car.

Roots on the tree ripped right out of the ground.

The residents of the house on the receiving end of the tree, trying to clear up. They looked in surprisingly good spirits….

…Despite the fact that a fellow onlooker told me that one of the people in the house had just left her car when the tree fell. Her car is now buried under a pile of branches, which isn't quite as bad as the whole trunk, but it's still far from ideal, eh?

Happily, it seems that the cobwebs/toilet paper so beloved here is pretty hardy and barely affected by the storm at all.

Though this scarecrow did end up a little wonky.

I leave you with my favourite Halloween decoration so far. Cacooned man!

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I write this to you from our brand new apartment in Bedford Stuyvesant, about 30 minutes walk from where we were before. We moved a couple of days ago, as the guy we were subletting from was due back. However, silly old Sandy the hurricane got his flight cancelled, so poor Harrison the cat has been left to weather the storm alone. Seeing as I have no desire to have a starved cat on my conscience… And because I think he's one of the best felines I've ever met, I braved the hurricane conditions this morning to check in on him. It's possible I'm being a little dramatic here, the eye of the storm isn't due to hit until this evening and the weather on my walk there was just a bit grim, not in the slightest bit dangerous (though it was a little rougher on the way back). Everything still felt a bit 'off' though, Brooklyn is on lock down, with most shops shuttered and dark. Some more haphazardly than others.

Talking about graveyards, Halloween is almost upon us and the locals haven't let me down in their house decorating efforts.

Some went for the 'my house has been toilet papered' effect.

Some chose tiny, tiny pumpkins.

Some decided rotten pumpkins were more festive.

And some decided the harvest theme, with just a hint of purple cotton wool, was more their bag.

The best of all the houses though was, sadly, one I didn't see myself, but instead found on the interwebz. It's Wizard of Oz themed and it's pretty great, even if I do find so much effort on Halloween decorations a little bizarre. Check out more pictures here.

As Halloween falls on a Wednesday this year, Saturday seemed to be the day most Halloween parties were being held. Mr and I sadly had no invites (cry cry) and so instead holed up in a pub after a delicious Dutch Boy burger.

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I've been a bad blogger, some of you wonderful readers have commented and have been left hanging by me, which is simply not on. From here on out, I promise to reply to all of your comments, I'll even try to go back and respond to old ones. This is the start of a new thorough me. So, if you have anything to say about anything I post about, make a little noise about it, even if it isn't very nice. Although I might cry if it's too mean. I kid. I kid. I'm much more stable and mature than that. Erm.

One of the best things about living in NYC is that people are constantly coming to visit, we've had guests for the last three weekends and this one was no exception as we welcomed some pals from Montreal. On Friday evening we told them to meet us at Randolph on Broome Street, as we'd liked it on our last visit. Unfortunately, Mr and I are a little daft, not realising that the pub has two branches a couple of doors away from each other. Once we finally got around that little hurdle, and despite the snacks we'd already had in the other branch, we ordered some tasty food to line our bellies. To accompany the food there was a dizzying array of beer on offer, some chocolatey, some fruity, some something else entirely. I'm a bit of a beer philistine though, Peroni is my beer of choice, but I'd choose a Carling over most craft beers any day of the week… So I supped on Prosecco (my go to drink whenever it's on offer) instead.

Enormous burgers, Macoroni cheese with bacon and smoked cheese and a sneaky salad for our more health conscious bud.

The next day we headed to the Fort Greene Flea Market, as one of my pals had read my previous post about it and made a special request. The sun put his hat on just for her too, with another beautifully warm and bright day. A couple of us headed to Asia Dogs stand for a wee pork slider with slaw for me, and a beef dog with pork for her….

As we ate these lovely people sang beautifully for us, as recent graduates from a music school they could properly SING and it was the perfect accompaniment to our al fresco dining. I especially like the police line they're performing behind. So glam.

I only went for a little slider as I was determined to find the luscious donut stand I'd partaken from on my last visit (and which had sold out when I wanted one at the Williamsburg flea). When I finally found it they only had four hibiscus donuts left, so I pounced and my GOD, they make some delicious freshness. I'm not even mad keen on donuts, cupcakes are more my bag, but these are truly the kings of the donut world.

Speaking of cupcakes…. These are maple and bacon. My friend had one and commented that it needed more bacon (doesn't everything? *sigh*), which I was secretly happy about, what with me abandoning them for the donut.

Glad to see my Monarch (I'm no royalist, but I can't do anything about it, so may as well make the best of a bad thing, eh?) represented even here in Brooklyn.

A stall that sells crazy amounts of original (and newer. Ugh, Jar Jar) Star Wars figurines, as well as a pile of random figures and happy meal toys that succeeded in giving me a happy, first time in a while Macdonalds has done that.

Another item on the Canadian agenda was a wander of Central Park, where we stumbled across some sort of fancy dress picnic. These Americans be crazy.

After that, we visited Rockerfella Plaza for a little 30 Rock homage (well, that's what a was doing anyway. In fact, it's what I do every time I go there).

Ice Rinks are coming out to play. Yay to cosy winter things (Let's just ignore the Indian summer, eh?).

After a well earned sit down and some dinner we popped into Molly's Cupcakes on Bleecker Street, where we were lucky enough to witness one of the young hipster employees (dressed in gold lamé hammer pants and a turban. Obviously) starting a dance off with some of the more drunk patrons.

None of the patrons were quite drunk enough to keep up with this young Jasmine wannabe though.

Once the wee little sprite had exhausted herself, we got on with ordering our cakes. There are a huge array of exciting flavours, but you can also build your own and I went for a bog standard vanilla and buttercream, with some gummi bears, just for a lark. As I ordered, I commented on the lunacy of ordering a chocolate base with a cream cheese topping and the girl serving me said that is exactly what Steven Tyler ordered when he'd been in a few weeks ago. Apparently he put it all in his mouth at once and ate it in one bite. For more exciting stories like that, come back next time kids! x

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Brooklyn is the land of thrift, with 2nd hands stores dotted all over… So it makes sense that there are regular flea markets every weekend too. After visiting the Fort Greene Flea a couple of weeks ago, I decided to take my mum for a look at the land of the hipster at the Williamsburg Flea.

I'd already waxed lyrical to my mum on my feelings about Williamsburg. I likes me some pretty architecture, which the area I live in at the moment has in spades (it's actually a conservation area, as the houses are so lovely). Williamsburg is much more industrial and boxy, and I'm still a little stumped as to why it's become so desirable. Some of the appeal is undoubtedly its position, right on the river and only a few minutes from Union Square station in downtown Manhattan. The rest of the draw I can only put down to like attracting like. The population seems to skew very white, very young and very, very hipster, who must revel in the areas lively nightlife. As neither I nor my mum are especially young or hipster (though we are white), we weren't especially blown away, but we did enjoy wandering around the flea market, which was extremely prettily positioned. It also sold useful items like this 70's set of scales. Every home should have one.

Getting hungry, we grabbed a delicious toasted cheese sandwich and sat to enjoy the views of Manhattan and beautiful hipster girls. Apologies if this photo makes me look like a bit of a creeper. I was trying to capture the Empire State Building, they were just in my way, honest.

I genuinely would have bought one of these if I was still in possession of a garden. Who doesn't love brightly coloured, rusty armadillos?

Hipster car.

And finally, I leave you with this image, as a representation of Williamsburg. I thought at first that they might be practicing Tai Chi, but it soon became apparent that it was more freeform than that. Like Rainbow Rhythms slowed down to a crawl.

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The city treated us to another of its wonderful, sunny days so we decided to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge for some lunch in DUMBO and an explore of Brooklyn Heights.

My little Mum (on her iPhone, as she ALWAYS is. She seriously has the attention span of a three year old) and my big Mr waiting for our friends at the entrance to the bridges walkway.

The bridge, featuring the ever-present Star Spangled Banner. Sadly, long sections of the pedestrian walkway are blocked off on both sides at the moment by what I guess are construction barriers. You can see the top of them below, they're ugly and restrict a lot of the beautiful views from the bridge.

Not all of them though. Mwah ha haaaa!

They're not lying. It's sweet as a nut.

DUMBO bird!

There were a huge amount of weddings seemingly taking place in and around DUMBO, most of them involving seriously horrible wedding dresses. Sadly, I was very slack at documenting these, but I can confirm that one was was bright turquoise and most looked highly flammable. Here is the lone one I managed to capture, largely because she walked back and forth across our paths so many times. Each time on her own, and clutching her gown around her like a death shawl.

I like to think she came across this bus afterwards and they committed some acts of kindness on her.

We then strolled up the promenade until we eventually made it to Brooklyn Heights, which I've decided is high on the list of places I would like to live if we had endless money and were actually going to settle here. The houses are incredible, the streets are cute and cobbled, it's peaceful and the views are spectacular.

A panorama I took with my Mums aforementioned iPhone.

That old statue by sunset.

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After my friends visit last week, my wonderful, unique Mum came over too, with a friend who'd never visited NYC before. One of the things she really wanted to do was take the Staten Island ferry so we took advantage of a beautiful sunny day to hop on the free ferry ride across the water.

The ferry gives a decent view of our dear pal, the grumpy old Statue of Liberty.

You also get a nice view of downtown Manhattan as you chug away from it.

Though the ferry is popular with visitors to NYC, Staten Island itself doesn't contain much that interests me. The main attraction is Historic Richmond Town, a 'living history' village and museum, which may well be impressive but I worry could pale in comparison with older, grander European equivalents. Apart from that there is a Tibetan museum and some botanical gardens, which are unlikely to be that impressive in October. We still decided to go for a little stroll along the waterfront and were rewarded with this very squinty picture of me and my Ma staring into the sun with NYC behind us.

And this one of the four of us (Mr was there too) looking into the water.

Then we headed back to Manhattan, I got a bit bored of the return journey and entertained myself taking amazing pictures like this. You're welcome.

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Sunday saw the end of my lovely pals visit, so to avoid sadness we headed back over to Park Slope to find ourselves a bottomless brunch (endless mimosas being the perfect antidote to sad goodbyes).

5th Avenue was randomly filled with police and Ferraris, I find cars massively uninteresting, but maybe you don't, so here they are.

Much more interesting were the gruff policemen and hilarious euro trash woman hanging by an especially Italian themed car.

Winning! If expensive cars are what make winners, which they don't if you ask me (I'm guessing blondie disagrees).

Park Slope is the home to Brooklyn Superhero Supply. I like to think that this little old lady is just Antman, or some other equally glamorous superhero in disguise.

Inside they sell everything a superhero could possibly need.

To explain, the shop is actually a branch of 826NYC, a non-profit organisation dedicated to helping children with their writing skills. The organisation have shops all across the country (each one different and unique) and all profits from their sales go back into their work. It's a brilliant idea, and something I would have been beside myself with glee about when I was a little'un. My pal purchased some items and had to recite the vow of heroism. For anyone interested, her superhero name is Gstar, which I can't believe I never knew before. It seems I'm a terrible friend. I also didn't buy anything, so I guess I am destined to sidekick status.

Drunk and happy, we headed home for a little while before the taxi arrived to whisk Gstar off on her journey home to fight crime and injustice. Bye bye Gstar! Xxx

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This weekend my pal and I decided to visit one of the famous flea markets of Brooklyn. The weather was still unseasonably warm (though sadly less sunny) so we walked, via the Brooklyn library. The library was holding a book sale, and opposite was a farmers market, where we munched on delicious macaroni and cheese for only $1.50. Bargain at twice the price.

Birds and ominous skies in Grand Army Plaza.

Us at the flea market.

If only we had permanent housing here. I'd well buy this.

Sadly, that's all the photos I have. The ominous skies weren't making for pretty pictures. My Mum is visiting this week though, so I'll be going to another flea this weekend, with my fingers crossed for sun.

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